


The Highschool prince in goopy armor (ft. his dumbass friends)

by StupidChild



Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, At this point I dunno what I‘m doing with my life, Awkwardness, Crossmare - Freeform, Dorms, Dream is Asexual because I said so, Eating Disorders, First Dates, Flirting, Flower you know I love you but why, Gen, Horror!Sans is cute, Horrorlust - Freeform, Hurt No Comfort, I‘m writing a sanscest book, I‘ve become too invested there’s no coming back, Killer is best wingman, Like not until later in the story but I feel like Ya’ll deserve a warning, M/M, PLATONIC CREAM- WHY HAVE I NEVER WRITTEN THAT, Platonic Cherryberry is strong in this, Platonic Cuddling, Platonic Relationships, Platonic destructive death is also strong in this, Romance, Scifell - Freeform, Sexuality Crisis, The Author Regrets Everything, Watch me project onto these magical gay highschool skeletons, Woah would you look at that a n g s t, afterdeath, dustberry - Freeform, errink - Freeform, honestly I just wanna write them being cute friends, i thought this phase was over, if you see this and know me bc of my Haikyuu fics, including mental health issues obviously, kreme - Freeform, like oh my god I was in physical pain while writing this one chapter, no you didn’t see this, pls wtf this is a sanscest book, they‘re best friends and I love them, very gay
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-01-25
Updated: 2021-03-10
Packaged: 2021-03-14 12:07:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 21
Words: 43,738
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28920300
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StupidChild/pseuds/StupidChild
Summary: I did not want to write this. But my anonymous friend is forcing me to post it on my account because they don’t have one. So uhm, here we are.So the credit for this idea and general story line goes to them.———There are many things Nightmare hates. People who use him or his brother, people who think they're better than him, Cross's father- the list goes on. School surprisingly isn't one of them.It's...okay.Most of the time.Teachers still suck.Nightmare and his...friends (he still doesn't like that word, but he can't deny that that's what they are) have fun.Accompany him and thirteen others (mostly him though, I have favorites) as they find friendship and love and fail horribly at math Error how the fuck are you good at this----Your typical Highschool Au, except maybe, it's not.(I'm serious that's a big maybe I've read like three? It's pretty typical I think but like I dunno)
Relationships: Sans/Sans (Undertale)
Comments: 191
Kudos: 105





	1. The royal guard, the prince in goopy armor and the sun

**Author's Note:**

> All I wanna say is that I don’t take credit for this idea and the general plot of this story, that’s all my anonymous friend. But I do write the scenes out which means the dialogue and all the is on me.
> 
> If this fic ever disappears it’s because my friend finally decided to make his own account 
> 
> I don’t own any of these characters
> 
> -Sci was created by TalkingSoup on Tumblr  
> -Cross and XChara were created by Jakei95 (aka. JakaeiArtworks) on DeviantArt  
> -Error and Geno (and Fresh who isn't in this story) were created by Lover of Piggies(also known as Crayon Queen or CQ for short) on Tumblr  
> -Dust was created(?) by Ask-DustTale on Tumblr (that's what's in the wiki so I'm assuming it's correct)  
> -Horror was created by Sour-Apple-Studios on Tumblr  
> -Killer was created by Rahafwabas on Tumblr  
> -Fell was created by Vic The Underfella  
> (Adopted by Community)  
> -Blue was created by P0pc0rnPr1nce  
> -Ink was created by Mye Bi (Comyet)  
> -Nightmare and Dream were created by Jokublog  
> -Lust was created by NSFWShamecave on Tumblr, but passed onto the community for story and fan-art  
> -Reaper (and his Toriel/life) was created by Renrik

Cold and Dark.

The room Nightmare found himself in was cold and dark.

It's not like he wasn't used to that, at this point he found it more pleasant than not, but something about this was weird. Something felt...wrong.

Drip. Drip. Drip.

Something was dripping on the floor.

Drip. Drip. Drip. 

They were tears.

The tears belonged to a skeleton. A little shorter than him, dressed for Antarctica for some reason, black and white clothes. The skeleton was shaking and crying. This seemed familiar.

Cross.

Cross was crying, why was he upset?

"Nightmare."

Nightmare wondered, could he fix it?

How was he supposed to fix it?

"Nightmare!"

He wanted to fix it.

"NIGHTMARE!"

He opened his eye. Right. Car. He must have fallen asleep.

Cross looked this close to slapping him awake and Dream was snickering in the front seat, clearly amused.

Their mother only sighed.

They were on their way to Multiverse Academy. A boarding school for grade ten and up. Their mother was driving Nightmare, his twin brother Dream and their friend Cross.

Well, at this point Cross was more than just a friend to Nightmare, but that was an entirely different issue.

"I'm awake, I'm awake." Nightmare grumbled. "Wake me nicer next time." Cross only grinned at him. "Good, we're almost there! And I'll try."

Cross was...an odd one.

He was the same age as the twins and had befriended them when they were all still little crotch goblins. Nightmare and Dream probably only were this close because Cross kind of held them together whenever they were fighting.

Cross was not timid (he had been has a child though, Nightmare had always enjoyed protecting him back them) but he was shy, so he didn't really talk much with anyone besides the twins.

He was very protective of his friends, even going as far as fighting of Dream's bullies with Nightmare. The taller monster smiled at the memory.

Though it was very obvious who his favorite twin was. Which was fine, Dream was extroverted, he had lots of friends, unlike Nightmare and Cross who mainly stuck together and avoided others.

Whatever Nightmares wanted, Cross would do, even if he then often denied ever doing it.

Whoever Nightmare was bothered by, Cross would threaten with a giant glowing knife.

That second one was especially charming.

(To be fair, Cross always listened to Dream's requests too should he have them. But he wouldn't hesitate to flat out refuse. Nightmare didn't think Cross would refuse him though, which was concerning when you think about it)

Cross was Nightmare's royal guard and Nightmare was the Prince in goopy armor.

At least that's what Dream always said.

Dream was...odd too now that Nightmare thought about it. He was his exact opposite.

Dream was like the sun. Kind, welcoming and a warm smile. Like a big baby, friendly and incredibly naive. So naive even that he didn't realize how many people took advantage of his kind nature until it was too late.

Which was exactly why Cross and Nightmare gladly took care of anyone who dared to make him cry.

The twins didn't always get along and Nightmare really did enjoy teasing Dream, but in the end he genuinely cared for him and wanted him to be okay. He'd never admit that though.

They had already arrived, looks like Nightmare had gotten lost in thought again.

"Hurry up brother!" "Yeah hurry up Nighty!"

Nightmare groaned as he got out of the car. "Dream, respect your elders. Cross, fuck you." Dream gasped. "27 Minutes!" "Yeah and in those 27 Minutes I made so much life experience you can't even comprehend that."

Cross pulled on one of his tentacles. "Fuck me? What about respecting your elders?" "Dream is a goody two shoes he has to, I don't give a shit." The shorter one chuckled. "That's fair."

Dream hugged their mother as Cross and Nightmare waited awkwardly at the side. She shot the two a look, the message was very clear "take care of him"

The two taller Skeletons carried all their luggage (it was surprising how many bags you could hang over one tentacle, really) as Dream led them to their dorms.

"Still, it's unfair that you two got together and I have to share the room with a stranger.", Dream mumbled. "Sucks to suck Dreamy. Fate was in our favor." Nightmare snickered. Cross coughed. "Besides, you're the one who's good at making friends right? I'm sure that you and your roommate will get along just fine. But imagine Nightmares or I in a room with a stranger."

"Hmmm I guess you're right Cross!" Cross really was a godsend.

"Well...here we are!"

Nightmare and Cross' dorm was opposite to Dream's, so they weren't exactly far away.

Cross immediately ran into the already unlocked room while Nightmare and Dream stayed behind a little.

"Well Dreamy, come to our dorm whenever you've met your roommate and settled in alright?" Dream nodded and smiled. "Thanks. Well then brother, have fun with your boyfriend~", he teased.

"Hah I wish."

"What?"

"What."


	2. First impressions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The roommates meet each other for the first time, or well, most of them.  
> Cross and Nightmare just have a very enlightening conversation

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> First off, did you know Killer is literally 4 feet tall? I didn't. But it's in the Wiki and I will pick on him for it in this fic.
> 
> Secondly, don't be afraid, the roommates aren't the ships. (Well, two are but the rest isn't) I picked them based on who I thought would get along okay and be funny as roommates.

"Hi, I'm Ink."

A friendly looking skeleton with two different colored and shaped eyelights greeted Dream in his dorm.

He blinked. This guy- he was shorter than him! That was new. Like, very really new. Dream was short, even for a Skeleton.

He victory yelled on the inside and smiled brightly at Ink. "Hi! My name's Dream. It's nice to meet you!" Ink smiled back. "I hope you don't mind taking the top bunk? Because I really want the bottom one." "That's fine, I think the top one is more fun anyways!"

That answer seemed to satisfy Ink. "Great!" He tossed his bag onto the bottom bunk of the bed and started unpacking. Dream noticed a lot of art supplies. Seemed like his name was fitting.

The dorm itself was simple. It wasn't as big as the room Dream had back home, but it was cozy and there was still plenty of space for two people.

There was a bunk bed on the right, taking most of the space along the wall.  
There was a window at the far end of the room and a desk in front of it, one chair on the right side, one on the left. It was big, so two people could easily do their respective work while sitting opposite to each other.

A door to what Dream assumed was the bathroom was positioned on the left wall, not far away from the desk.  
The rest of the space on the left was taken up by two separate closets. Both definitely big enough to fit the average wardrobe.

All in all these dorms were better than what he had expected, really.

Dream put down his bag and inspected the bathroom. It was clean and again, cozy but still big enough for two people. He smiled to himself, this was pretty neat.

His roommate seemed like a nice person too. He didn't have to end up as his best friend or anything, but they'd get along, he was sure of it.

Dream began unpacking most of his things, having a casual conversation with Ink in the mean time. Yeah, he seemed pretty cool.  
Ink didn't seem interested in unpacking just yet, as he had sat on his bed and began drawing something in his notebook.

"Hey Dream." He said after a while. The monster turned around to face his roommate. "Yes?" "Who does this look like to you?" Ink held up his sketchbook. Dream gasped. That was a pencil drawing of him! "You drew me! And it looks so amazing!"

Ink chuckled. "Yeah, it's what I've been doing this whole time. I'm still not done yet. I'm still adding details and the shading could be better." To Dream, that drawing looked perfect, but he knew that artists were the most critical of their own art most of the time.

"You know, I'm probably gonna start sticking art to the walls. At first it's gonna be the wall next to my bed, then probably the bed itself, and then? Then I'm sticking it everywhere else in this dorm and you can't stop me. Just a warning." Ink said that so casually, as if he was talking about the weather and yet his tone still made it clear that there was no room for arguments.

Dream didn't mind anyways, it would look pretty. "That sounds like a good idea! I'm sure it will look nice." Ink's smile lit up once more as he heard that answer. "Friends?" "Yeah, friends."

In the room next to them, two skeletons were staring at each other wordlessly.

One of them was freakishly tall (for a skeleton at least), hands stuffed into his hoodie pockets, heterochromatic eyes piercing right through the other.

The other one was short, just as short as Dream. Black liquid dripped from his empty eye sockets and his soul, which was the shape of a target was visible on his chest. He too, had his hands stuffed in his pockets and was staring at the other.

(At least he was pretty sure that the dude was staring at him, it was kinda hard to tell with the whole no eyelights thing. But who knows, maybe he'd fallen asleep standing up)

"Dust."

"Killer."

And that was about it when it came to introductions.

Then, a snicker. "Dude- what were your parents thinking? Who names their kid after what is essentially a monster corpse?"

"Bruh, who names their kid Killer? Did you have any friends in kindergarten? Or Elementary school? Because with that name I doubt it."

Silence.

"I _like_ you."  
"I like you too."

They high-fived and grinned at each other.

"Dibs on the top bunk by the way.", Dust exclaimed. Killer sighed. "But I wante- you know what that's fair. You were first."

Dust snickered. "Well if you want the top bunk at all cost we can just share. We're skeletons we can make the space work." "No homo though right?" "Oh all the homo. But you're not my type. You have like, the whole bad boy vibe and I'm more into cute guys." "Okay all the homo. You're not my type either."

They looked at each other, both already deciding that the other would be their best friend. "It'll be fine as long as we don't take our socks off." "I was just about to say that!" These two were getting along a little too well already.

Meanwhile Horror was standing in front of his dorm, debating whether he should enter already or not. He was...afraid. Afraid that his roommate would freak out as soon as he saw him and then ask for a new one.

For once in his life he'd like to not feel like an absolute freak.

But before he could open the door, a skeleton approached him from behind and opened it himself. "This is your dorm too right? What are you waiting for?" And then he entered.

Horror blinked. Hard. The stranger hadn't even batted an eye at the giant gaping whole in his head. That was...new. Usually people at least stared, even if they didn't say anything.

He too entered the room only to see his roommate already on the top bunk. That was fine, he wanted the bottom one anyways. Horror looked at the other skeleton. He couldn't really see what kind of pants he was wearing, and he had already taken of his jacket but the stranger was wearing a black crop top with a heart on it.

His eyelights were white. Horror wondered if they would change color when the other used magic. His roommate looked...pretty.

"I know I'm hot, but am I really so hot you can't stop staring at me?" Shit. Had he really been staring this whole time? Horror scratched the inside of his head. "That too. I'm just...surprised I guess."

The other skeleton cocked his head. "Surprised? How come?" Horror snickered and pointed at the hole in his head. "No running away? No screaming? No calling me a freak? No intense staring? No woah what happened to you?" The other skeleton seemed a bit confused.

"That seems kind of rude. And it's really none of my business is it? Besides, I think it suits your vibe, gives you a little special something." Who was this stranger? Was he an angel? "But it seems like it would hurt. If you ever need pain killers or something just ask me, I got you." Horror was sure he was an angel. "Thanks...sorry for staring at _you_."

The other smiled and winked at him. "Trust me, I don't mind a cute guy like you staring at me." Horror blushed. Cute? Him? That was a first. Maybe the stranger wasn't an angel after all and one of those seductive demons instead. Seemed legit.

"I'm Lust by the way." Oh yeah he was definitely a demon here to seduce him and it was working.

"Horror." "I like that name, it suits you."

In another room, two skeletons were playing Rock Paper Scissors over who got the bottom bunk.

One was a little shorter than average, he wore a lab coat and glasses. He was obviously nervous and at this point was ready to just take the top bunk. His roommate however had convinced him to play, because that would only be fair.

Sci, his name was Sci.

Sci looked at his roommate. They had each won one round and were moving on to the final one. He had introduced himself as Genocide, though he preferred being called Geno.

Genocide, what a particular name. Geno was average height for a skeleton, he wore a long red scarf and had a glitch cloud in front of one eye. Which wasn't the part that worried Sci. It was the giant slash wound on his chest and the blood on his slippers. And that was permanent?

Oh. He had won Rock Paper Scissors.

Geno smiled. "Ah fuck. Well, I'll take the top one then." Sci took a deep breath. "Uhm...y-you can have the bottom one anyways. I-it's okay r-really." Geno looked at him for a few seconds and then gave him a head pat. "Nope. You won fair and square. Don't feel bad."

Sci smiled to himself. This roommate of his, he liked him. He hoped they could become friends.

"Hello new friend my name is Blueberry! You can call me Blue! How about you?"

Fell was so done. He was _not_ doing this. Nope. Why was this tiny skeleton so full of energy? Why was he so small? He was even shorter than his boyfriend. Why was his voice so annoyingly high pitched too?

He sighed. "I'm Fell and I'm _not_ your friend. Got that? Anyways, I'm taking the top bunk." Blue stared at him, that stare was somewhat unnerving. He mumbled something under his breath that sounded a lot like "yet"

Fell was a bit panicked now. "The fuck did you just say?!" Blue just smiled. And oh god why did he look scary? "You're not my friend _yet_. I _will_ be your friend even if it's the last thing I do!"

"Uhm...no thanks?" "YOU DONT GET TO DECLINE!" Blue tackled him in a hug. "GOD FUCKING DAMMIT DONT DO THAT- ARE YOU TRYING TO KILL ME?!"

Fell really, _really_ didn't like this. Couldn't he have been put with Sci?

"Sup?" Reaper walked into the room only to see a weird looking Skeleton hang from the ceiling by blue strings, like Spiderman. Okay. This was fine. This was normal.

The skeleton looked at him. He had black bones with red and yellow accents and his body seemed to be constantly glitching. "Except me? The ceiling. And uh...the lamp. Lots of dust too."

Oh god this guy was an absolute idiot. Reaper already loved him. He'd be following him around and annoying him all day tomorrow.

"So Spiderman. What's your name?" The glitchy Skeleton finally came down from the ceiling. "They call me Error." Reaper held out his hand for a hand shake. "The name's Reaper. Nice to meet you."

Error just looked at his hand. "I don't really do touching." Reaper pulled his hand back. "That's fine. You got haphephobia?" The black skeleton looked him up and down, as if he was assessing whether to answer or not.

"Yeah."  
"I'll keep that in mind then."

Error had already obviously claimed the top bunk, so Reaper let himself fall onto the bottom one face first. "...you okay there dude?" "Yep. I'm just too lazy to keep standing."

...

"...you were floating."  
"I know."

A glitchy sigh escaped Error. It was drawn out and reminded Reaper of the sound his computer made when shutting down. He had to suppress his laughter since Error probably didn't like being compared to dying gadgets. "Lazy ass bastard. I hope you're not like this when it comes to keeping the room clean." "No worries buddy."

And that was that for conversation. The two of them continued with their own things in comfortable silence.

"So Cross, you want top or bottom?" Considering their current situation, Nightmare had been 100% sure that Cross wouldn't be able to misunderstand that question.

Yet, somehow, he did. Cross froze and stared at him, purple blush quickly covering his entire face. Nightmare sighed and waited. 'Give him some time Nightmare.', he thought. 'He'll get it eventually.'

After a few seconds, Cross seemed to finally snap back into reality. "Oh! Bunk bed. Right. Can I have the top one?" He was still blushing, though it was probably mostly of embarrassment now.

Nightmare didn't try to hold back his laugh. "Fucking perv." " _¡Cierra el pico!_ " Nightmare snorted. "Why are you speaking Spanish?!" He had to wipe a tear from his eye. Cross was an adorable idiot when flustered oh god.

He couldn't let him live this down, not yet. "Besides, if I was talking about sex I wouldn't ask. You're _obviously_ a bottom." "EXCUSE ME?!" If only he could film this.

"You're way more of a bottom than I am!" Were they really having this conversation right now? "No Cross. I have the hentai tentacles so I can't be a bottom." Why was he doing this? What was he even saying? "I...that's a solid argument I don't really know what to say against that."

Ha. He had won.

Nightmare was just about to rub his victory in Cross' face when. " _But_ if you went passive-" "No. Nope. Fuck you. Not having this conversation. Weren't we talking about bunk beds? I think we really have to start unpacking too. Hey nice weather today isn't it?"

Okay. So maybe it was a draw.


	3. Horror is a puppy and Lust is horny for serial killers - Reaper is concerned

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horror is weird, Lust think‘s he‘s cute though. (Lust is right.  
> -author who literally only came back into the undertale fandom because they love Horror)

A few hours after their arrival, Nightmare and Cross had finished unpacking most of their stuff. They were now both sitting on Nightmare's bed, simply enjoying each other company.

Cross was cuddled up against Nightmare's side, while the other's tentacles were wrapped around him. His tentacles had a mind of their own sometimes, so when they had first starting doing that years ago, Nightmares had always been embarrassed and tried to stop them.

By now he knew better than to do so, because they would start again after some time anyways. And Cross had admitted to liking it, that it made him feel safe. Nightmare smiled at the memory.

A knock on the door disturbed their peaceful moment.

"S'that you Dream? The door's unlocked just come in." Cross opened his eyes and stretched, Nightmare was a little upset.

Dream came into the room, behind him was an even shorter skeleton with paint on his face. "I hope you don't mind that I brought my new friend." Dream smiled and Nightmare groaned. "And where'd whoever that is come from?"

"This is Ink. He's my roommate and an amazing artist! Ink, this is my twin Nightmare and our friend Cross." Dream was so happy and full of joy Nightmare was gonna throw up.

Cross on the other hand seemed delighted at this turn of events. "Nice to meet you Ink! Don't mind Nighty, he gets grumpy when he's tired." One of his tentacles flicked Cross on the head. "Shut up asshole. Anyways, it's just like you to immediately become friends with a stranger Dream."

To Nightmares luck, Cross decided to cuddle up to him again. The tentacles immediately returned to their original position.

His brother chuckled. "Yeah, I guess you two were right." For the first time since he had entered the room, Ink made a sound. He laughed. They looked at him confused. "Oh sorry. It's just that Dream warned me you two might be scary or intimidating, but all I see is a very grumpy octopus and a fluffy cat."

Cat? He looked to his right to see Cross still cuddled up to him. Kind of like a cat, especially with all the fluff...that Ink guy may have had a point.

Still. "I'm not a grumpy octopus." "You kinda are." "Shut up Dream." Ink just smiled. "Many people call me Squid. It's usually meant as an insult but I think it fits. So we're like cousins."

Nightmare just scoffed, but this guy wasn't that bad, at least he wasn't afraid to say something like that to his face. That took some guts.

"Why squid though?" Cross questioned. "Nighty being an Octopus is based on his appearance, but with you?" Ink nervously scratched his head. "I kinda...puke Ink."

Oh.

"So did people just watch you puke? Or how'd they figure it out?" "Oh. I puke when I'm really nervous. My bullies used to corner me and then throw things at me or punch me so I'd panic and puke."

Why did he say that as if he was talking about the weather? Was this dude okay?

Dream looked at his new friend in concern. "They're...not here are they?" "Most of them aren't. But I'm pretty sure two or three of them go here too now."

Ink seemed to only now realize that everyone was staring at him. "Don't worry. Our old school had a strict anti magic rule and I would've gotten in more trouble than them for using mine. But this school doesn't really care so I'll just fight back now."

Nightmare didn't really care about Ink, but he knew that neither Cross nor Dream would be satisfied with that. So he looked at the monochrome skeleton.

Their eyes met. It was decided, should anyone try shit with Ink, they'd take care of them.

Meanwhile Ink just continued smiling and then started happily talking about his favorite subjects, making the others join in in the conversation. It was as if he couldn't sense the sour mood, and Nightmare was pretty sure this was actually the case.

Some people weren't exactly good with emotions after all.

———

It had been two days since Reaper had arrived at the academy. Classes wouldn't start until tomorrow, so Error had decided to check out the campus for now. And of course, Reaper followed him.

Reaper really liked this guy. He wasn't stupid, had a good sense of humor and was fun to tease. All in all he was Reaper's future best friend, whether he wanted it or not.

He wasn't sure what Error thought of him, but the grumpy skeleton at least didn't seem to be annoyed by his company. That was a start.

The two of them were sitting on a bench, making fun of other students' clothing choices when a skeleton approached them. They had an unsettling vibe to them, probably because of the giant whole in their skull and the creepy glowing red eye.

They now stood directly in front of Reaper and his friend and just _stared_. "You." Judging by the voice this was a guy. He pointed at Error, who seemed to be getting ready to fight. "You got a problem?"

Reaper too, silently got ready to shoot a blaster at the stranger should he try anything. He seemed like he was not to be trusted and would attack at any moment.

The creepy skeleton just tilted his head. "Why are you black?"

...

" _What_."

"HORROR YOU CANT JUST ASK PEOPLE WHY THEY'RE BLACK!" Another skeleton, this one a little shorter than 'Horror' grabbed his friend(?) and pulled him a few steps back.

Judging by the voice, this skeleton was also a guy. He wore revealing clothing and didn't seem to be wary of Horror at all. Reaper found this a little weird, as even he was wary of the guy.

"Lust? Why not?" Horror whispered to the guy that was apparently Lust. "Hush!" The new skeleton turned to Error. "I'm sorry about him, he didn't mean to be rude. He's just like that...I think." Reaper snickered. "You think?"

"Well I only met him the day before yesterday. We're roommates. But h-" "Look Lust, a squirrel!" Childish excitement spread across Horror's face as he started practically vibrating on the spot.

Lust smiled. "Do you wanna...go chase it?" "I'm gonna kill it!" He pulled an axe out of nowhere and _okay_ now Reaper was genuinely concerned. "I'm just- I'm just gonna wait here. You have fun. Try not to kill any people." Horror nodded and sprinted away.

Lust was just standing there. As if this was normal. How did he fall asleep in a room with that guy. Lust seemed to sense his concern. "Don't worry. Horror may look scary and be running around with an axe right now, but he's really not that dangerous." That was hard to believe.

"He doesn't hurt people unless they give him a reason to, I think. Like I said I've known him for two days. But from what I know he's basically a big puppy starved for affection." Reaper looked at Horror who was just throwing a sharpened bone attack at the poor squirrel and then back at Lust.

"And You're not concerned about the whole psycho murderer part?" Lust crossed his arms over his chest. Was he _offended_? "He's not a psycho." _He didn't deny the murderer part._ "And...you know...I think that just adds to his own personal charm. Or maybe that's just cause I think he's cute. I dunno."

Silence. Had he heard that right? He looked at Error who looked just as scared? Shocked? Concerned? The glitchy skeleton cleared his throat. "So you're into serial killers?" "Yeah I guess. I don't think he is one, but I wouldn't be opposed. That'd be hot, ya know?" "No I don't know."

Reaper leaned forward. "So are you two like- fucking? You trying to fuck him?" Lust chocked. "Excuse me?" He took a step back, had Reaper invaded his personal space? He'd always been bad with that.

Suddenly Horror appeared in front of them. He had teleported himself between Lust and Reaper was very effectively shielding the smaller Skeleton with his body.

"Horror? You haven't gotten the squirrel yet?" Lust sounded genuinely confused. "Yeah I just...uhhh..." Horror glared at Error and Reaper. That's when he realized.

Yes, Horror looked creepy, but him and Error weren't the most friendly or harmless looking monsters either. Horror was protecting his friend. That was...weirdly cute.

Lust seemed to realize the same thing as his eyes lit up and he threw an arm around Horror. "Nawww, you were worried for me Horror! That's very sweet of you! But no worries, these two seem harmless enough. And I'm not exactly helpless either!" He playfully let his eyelights glow purple.

Reaper was a bit taken aback. For a split second he'd felt the other's magic and he was surprisingly powerful. Not as powerful as him or Error, but definitely enough for someone to have a really bad time fighting him. Then again, he was a skeleton, their magic tended to be above average.

After a few head pats, Horror calmed down completely. "Since you were such a hero just now, how about I buy you some chicken nuggets?" Horror perked up. "Chicken nuggies?!" But this time he wasn't the only one. Reaper grabbed Lust's shoulders. "Wait you can get chicken nuggets somewhere here?!"

Reaper was too exited about the nuggets, to notice Lust flinching at the contact. But Horror wasn't, and immediately pushed him away.

Lust giggled and sent Horror a look that clearly said "thank you". "Yeah, passed it yesterday. Want me to show you? You have to pay for yourself though, I'm only paying for Horror."

Reaper nodded enthusiastically. Error sighed. "I guess chicken nuggets wouldn't hurt right now..."

"Chicken nuggies would never hurt. They're the best! Even better than head dogs." Error chocked, but Reaper hadn't paid enough attention to hear him say 'head'.

It was only an hour or so later, after they had all eaten together, exchanged numbers (though Error had been rather reluctant to do so) and parted ways again, that Reaper realized. "DID THAT GUY SAY HEAD DOGS?"


	4. Murder man and Corpse boi

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Killer is best wingman- hey a lot of these characters‘ name make h o r r i b l e first impressions
> 
> Nightmare and Cross are pining. Hard.

Dust and Killer were exploring the school together. They were currently in the cafeteria, which luckily already served food.

Killer was searching for a place to sit when his friend stopped in his tracks. "Dust?" "Kills look!" Dust pointed towards a table with four skeletons.

One of them, that appeared to be bleeding was currently laughing at another one. This one short, blue and full of energy. There was also an edgy looking skeleton with their arm around a nerdy one.

There was nothing out of the ordinary there, except for maybe the bleeding Skeleton, but they seemed unbothered by it and he'd seen worse, so Killer was confused. He then looked back at his friend and finally understood. Dust was blushing. "Dude, is this what they call love at first sight?" Dust could only nod.  
Damm.

Killer pulled Dust away and pushed him around the corner, where none of the other skeletons could see them. "Okay we can't have them catch you staring. It's the one with the blue scarf right?" Dust blinked. "Yeah, how'd you know?"

Killer chuckled. "I told you we have similar types." Dust looked at him and raised a non existent eyebrow. "Okay let's go talk to them." Killer started walking back towards the table. "Wait what?! Kills come back!"

But it was too late. Killer had already arrived and was smiling at the other monsters. Dust would thank him for this later. He turned towards the smaller skeleton. "Hey my friend thinks you're cu-" "COOL! I think you look really cool but I wasn't brave enough to talk to you and this is embarrassing we're gonna go!"

Dust had jumped him from behind and clasped a hand around his mouth. Well, this was awkward. The taller skeleton then picked him up and threw him over his shoulder, ready to run away. Sometimes Killer really hated his height.

But the little skeleton had other plans. "You think I look cool? Of course you do! After all, I the magnificent Blue, am the coolest! Mwehehehe!" Blue huh? Okay. This could work.

"Hey hey! Do you two wanna sit with me and my friends?" Dust turned around and stared at Blue. "Really?" "Yeah, if it's okay with them?" The other three agreed, though Killer could swear he heard someone mumble "I'm not your friend" or something like that.

"Oh okay cool. Thanks." Dust said, completely ignoring Killer. (Not that he had anything against it, but a guy likes to be included you know?) He groaned, had Dust forgotten about him? "Let me down Corpse boi!" "Eugh- stop being such a baby Murder man!" He heard a snort. Which was fair, those nicknames were stupid.

After a little more fighting, Dust and Killer finally sat down at the table. "So Murder man and Corpse boi..." The skeleton with the whole blood thing going on began. "Do you have actual names too? Or can we just call you that?"

Killer glanced at his friend. He sighed. "Well, let's get this over with. Spoiler warning our names are a little odd." Dust chuckled awkwardly. "I'm Dust, this is Killer. We're not gonna go on a killing spree though, promise."

They were both very prepared to be stared at weirdly, they were used to that. What they didn't expect was the edgy looking skeleton to lean forward in excitement. "Those names are sick!" Oh. Okay then. "Are you for real?" "Yeah, I wish my name was at least a little interesting...I'm Fell by the way and my little nerd here is Sci."

Fell squeezed Sci's shoulder who in response blushed and smiled. Okay, so those two were a thing. Cute. The bloody skeleton spoke up now. "I'll be honest with you. Your names are just as bad as mine. And mine isn't even the worst one I know."

"Oh? What's your name?" "Genocide. Call me Geno. And yes it's ironic with the whole eternally dying look I've got going on, you're allowed to laugh." At that exact moment Killer snorted. Genocide. Who named their kid Genocide? Maybe they were secretly brothers, because until now he thought only his parents would be crazy enough to come up with something like that.

Dust looked at Geno with interest. "What's the worst name you've heard though?" Geno chuckled and leaned forward as if he was going to tell them a big secret. "My cousin's name is Error."

Fell looked at him in horror. " _No_." "Yes."

Geno leaned back in his seat. "Yeah he has some...self confidence issues." "I'd have self confidence issues too if my parents named me another word for mistake!" Sci cried out. "What were they thinking?!"

"I'd say the bad names run in the family, but our other cousin is fine. His name's Fresh. He also goes to this school, he's a year above us."

"Well...my parents just named me and my brother after food. He's Carrot and I'm Blueberry. But wow some people have interesting names..."

"Food is good though right? I mean, everyone likes food." Dust said and Blue beamed at him. "Yeah food is great! Especially sweets!"

Suddenly Killer had an idea. "There's a super cool Candy Store around here Blue. You should totally check it out, Dust can show you the way!" His friend stared at him in disbelief. Hah.

"Oh Dust you would? That'd be awesome! Are you free on Wednesday afternoon?" A purple hue covered Dust's face. "Yeah- yeah sure." "Awesome! We should totally exchange numbers too!" Now blushing even more, Dust nodded.

Killer grinned as the two exchanged numbers. Sci and Fell chuckled amongst themselves and Geno looked at him, raising a nonexistent eyebrow. Killer shrugged and Geno sighed.

After all of them parted ways, Dust immediately freaked out. "Oh my god holy shit did you just wingman me- you wingmaned me! Killer what the fuck I love you. Did you see how cute he is? He's so cute! Also you have to give me directions to that store..."

Killer smiled, content with himself. He let his friend ramble on for now.

———

"Eres un idiota sin valor."

"...eres un idiota sin valor?"

Cross nodded proudly. "Cross what the fuck did you just teach me to say?" He chuckled. "You're a worthless idiot. Though you'd have to say 'una' when talking to a lady."

"What if the person is nonbinary?" "Then you improvise. Spanish is enbyphobic...so is French and Italian and German...a lot of languages that aren't English."

Nightmare grinned. They had been bored, so he'd convinced Cross to teach him how to insult people in Spanish. It was sad that he genuinely found this funny, but oh well.

The two of them were sitting on the top bunk and as always, Nightmare's tentacles had wrapped themself around Cross. "How do you say dick?" The other snorted. "Nighty your gay is showing."

One of Nightmare's tentacles shot into one of Cross' eyesockets. "NIGHTMARE WHAT THE FUCK- EW EW EW GET IT OUT!" He snorted. "Say sorry." "I'm sOoOOORRy!"

Nightmare couldn't help but laugh at his friend's misery. This was nice, to be able to sit in a bed with him and goof around. To just be happy and not worry about shitty people.

He looked out of the window, it was a beautiful night. The moon illuminated the campus and stars danced across the sky, no clouds to be seen. Cross followed his line of sight. "Hey Nighty, wanna go on a walk?"

"Huh?" "It's a pretty night...and because school starts the day after tomorrow, it's the last chance for us to take a nice midnight stroll before risking being late to class. I know how much you like being out in the dark."

Nightmare smiled, this guy knew him too well. He teleported himself and Cross outside, his tentacles immediately spreading out to enjoy the nice cool air.

"Well then?" He held out his hand for Cross, the other smiled and took it without hesitation.

This was...a thing they did.

Neither of them liked to admit it, but it made them feel a little safer, a little more comfortable, especially in new places. Which was a thing they really needed because neither of them could let their guard down for even one second.

They were both anxious and hostile, though for one of them, this led to aggression, while the other had trust issues. One of them picked fights while the other avoided human and/or monster interaction.  
(Unless Nightmare told him to beat someone up of course, then Cross suddenly got over his shyness. Fucking simp.)

The holding hands thing got very awkward or inconvenient in some places though, so it wasn't uncommon for one of Nightmare's tentacles to gently wrap itself around Cross wrist in crowds.

Right now this wasn't the case of course, as they walked around the cute little garden this school had, hand in hand, completely relaxed. Or well, as relaxed as they could be. It was almost romantic.

Who was he kidding this wasn't just almost romantic.

Nightmare groaned internally. Under normal circumstances this would be in no way platonic. No. Way. But the thing was, the two of them weren't normal.

They weren't _just_ normal friends, normal friends weren't _like_ this. Right?

Then again, Cross wasn't really friends with anyone besides Nightmare himself and Dream. So maybe he thought this was normal. But he wasn't like this with Dream, was he?  
He wasn't.

"I know that face, what are you thinking about?" "Nothing." Oh how desperately he wanted to say that. But he didn't, he couldn't. Instead he answered truthfully. "You."

He saw purple blush cover Cross' face once again. Normal friends didn't make each other blush this much either right? "Mostly good things I hope?"

"Only."

He smiled and squeezed the other's hand.

"...all the good things in the world actually."

"Damm Nighty, almost sounds like you're in love with me or something."

He sighed. Would they ever be more than friends? "Yeah, it does, doesn't it."

Nightmare would've watched the world burn if it meant Cross would tell him he felt the same. At that very moment he'd been willing to do anything for them to stay together forever.

"Then again, it kinda seems like we're both in love with each other, right?"

But Nightmare was a horrible person. He was cruel, selfish, a liar and worst of all a coward.

Above all a coward.

So he wouldn't tell him, not today.


	5. Aggressive bully flirting and ghost child Crossmare shipper

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reaper doesn’t know how to flirt but it still works on Geno.  
> Chara is absolutely done with Cross‘ bullshit.

Error was walking towards "that one ugly ass tree in the middle of the courtyard, you know what I mean" as Geno described it. He did in fact know what his cousin meant, but it was still a weird way to say "that one big pine tree".

The two of them had wanted to meet up before school officially started, and had agreed to meet there. They hadn't seen each other in a long time.

"So what's your cousin's name?" Right. Reaper was following him. He floated a few centimeters above the ground, right next to Error. It didn't look like he had any intention of leaving him alone.

Which was fine? Error surprisingly didn't mind. In his head he considered Reaper his friend, though he wouldn't just admit that. That would be playing right into the lazy bastard's hands.

"His name's Geno. Or well it's actually Genocide, but no one calls him that." Reaper chuckled. "What a nice name...what's he like?" "You're about to find out aren't you?"

"Oh come on, just try to describe him in one to five words?" Error sighed. "Mean, but also not really." "What?" "You'll understand sooner or later."

The "ugly ass tree" was hard to miss. It was a very tall pine tree in the middle of a field, standing on top of a small hill. As they got closer, Error could easily make out Geno's white clothes against the tree's dark wood. He waved, and his cousin waved back.

Reaper noticed this. "That's him?" He asked, clearly shocked. "Yeah why do you sound so surprised?"

Reaper just looked at him, seemingly dead serious. "Dude." He began. "You didn't tell me your cousin was hot."

"WHAT?!"

"I'm serious, like- look at him?" "He's my cousin I'm in no way shape or form attracted to him." Reaper snorted. "Yeah okay, that's reassuring to hear, but just because you think someone _looks_ attractive doesn't mean you're attracted _to_ them, you know what I mean?"

"Reaper I'm literally Demi. I physically can't find people hot unless their personality is also hot to me." "Okay but he's aesthetically pleasing to look at right?"

Error paused. He looked at Geno who seemed confused as to why he and Reaper had stopped. "I mean...I guess?" "There you go!" "You're not gonna hit on my cousin though right?"

"..."

"REAPER!"

Error's glitches started becoming a little more _extreme_ as he didn't know wether to laugh or cry. Which, weirdly enough had become a common occurrence for him in his three days of knowing Reaper. The guy was a sad excuse of a walking talking joke. A bad joke. And he didn't even walk, just float, because he was lazy.

Why was he okay with this dude's presence again? He was _horrible_ and Error _still_ liked him oh god.

Error was getting distracted.

"What's going on here?" Geno said, suddenly right there in front of them. Oh. He must've walked up to them because they had stopped going in his direction.

"Oh hey Geno. S'good to see you." The other crossed his arms over his chest. "Hi. And who's that?"

"Oh, this is my roommate Reaper. He's lazy and annoying and decided to follow me." Reaper huffed, pretending to be offended. "Rude much." "Oh he also thinks you're hot."

" _What_."

Error snorted. Maybe he shouldn't have said that. Oh well it was too late now.  
Geno froze and stared at him in a mix of disbelief and confusion, Reaper seemed weirdly amused though.

"Are you serious? Me? Maybe you should get your eyes checked." Geno then said. "No trust me. I know a hot guy when I see one." Reaper grinned and leaned closer to Geno.

"I- oh my god! Back off! I can't with this." Geno was _blushing_. 'Holy shit.' Error thought. This was the best thing ever. "Nawww Geno, you're really cute when you're blushing."

"Did you just call me cute?! I'm not cute!" "Oh but you are Geno! You're _adorable_. Like a sweet, tiny, helpless, baby kitten. Especially when you're blushing."

Ah, now Error remembered why he was okay with Reaper.

He was a very special kind of annoying. One that Error could handle but others like Geno really couldn't. Watching people suffer was hilarious, and Reaper was great at making people suffer.

And well, he had to admit that Reaper had balls to do this with a stranger. Especially one that looked like he went to war, died, and then said fuck death, came back and killed everyone else.

"I'm not blushing and I am _not_ cute." "I dunno, is your face normally blue? Also you're definitely cute. Just like I said, kitten." " _Shut the fuck up_."

Error didn't know how to feel about this.  
Was he supposed to do something? Well, this was originally a meeting between the cousins, and Geno would probably appreciate him stopping Reaper.

...

But this was kinda funny. Not just kinda, and this was pretty much his only source of entertainment right now.

"Come on Geno, just admit you're blushing because some guy you think is handsome complimented you." "WHO SAID YOU'RE HANDSOME?!"

Yeah okay this was definitely funny. Had it always been this easy to rile up Geno or was Reaper just right?

"So you don't think I'm handsome?"

"...N-no. Of course not."

What if Error helped with the teasing? "You totally hesitated Gen!" Oh fuck yeah. Today was Geno-bullying day. "I-I did not." "Naw Geno I knew you wouldn't be able to resist me."

"Oh fuck both of you!" Geno started to walk away. "I hate you Error and I hate _hate_ your stupid friend!" Error wiped a fake tear from his face. "Love you too Geno!" He hesitated- should he? Oh screw it he was going to do it. "And I'm sure Reaper loves you too!"

Geno didn't turn around, but he flipped him off one more time before disappearing. This was amazing.

He stared at Reaper, who just stared back at him. "That went well." "Yeah it actually did. If he really didn't like you, he would've slapped you. Or shot a blaster at you. Or both."

Reaper looked a bit concerned now. Which was fair. He did just realize that he was risking some broken bones this whole time.

"I'm a little concerned for Geno though. I mean, your aggressive bully flirting or whatever that was actually worked. Like what?" "Wait are you serious? It worked?" All the blushing involved and the fact that Reaper wasn't dead or at least severely injured, made it pretty clear to Error. "Oh yeah definitely."

Suddenly, his phone vibrated in his pocket. Error pulled it out and saw that it was a message from Geno. He chocked as he read it.

"Error wha-" Reaper went silent as Error shoved the phone into his face, while barely holding back his laughter.

 **LiterallyDying:** Give me your friend's number. Now.

"Can I text him back from your phone?" "Go ahead."

 **You:**  
Miss me already? ;)

 **LiterallyDying:**  
Reaper?!  
No I don't- Fuck you!

 **You:**  
*****  
That's my number <3

 **LiterallyDying:**  
...  
Thanks

"PLEASE HOW DID THIS WORK?!" "I dunno man. I don't actually know how to flirt so I just did what I do best, annoy the shit out of people."

Error was pretty sure he was glitching from laughter at this point, but he didn't care. This was the start of a beautiful fucking love hate romance he just knew it.

———

Cross liked showering. It got you clean, you smelled nice afterwards and sometimes it felt like the warm water could momentarily wash away your worries.

Luckily for him, he didn't have to worry about showering for too long for as long as they lived in the dorms, because Nightmare never showered. The goop covering his body was self cleaning and water only made it weird, so the shower basically belonged to Cross.

He was currently showering. He sighed and let the water wash away all his problems. Well almost.

"Soooo Criss-Cross." "I don't like that tone. What do you want Chara?"

As much as he enjoyed Chara's company sometimes, other times he wished he could just wash him away. Like seriously.

"I can't take this anymore Cross. The pining is becoming unbearable. Just get married already." Why was his love life so important to this ghost child? He just couldn't understand.

"Oh shut up Chara." "No Cross I'm serious!" He floated in front of Cross to look him directly in the eyes. "I think romance is disgusting and I quite frankly don't care for the hentai calamari dude." Chara seemed very heated about this.

"But you literally took a romantic midnight stroll, just the two of you, while holding hands, and he said what is basically a love confession and you said that it sounded like a love confession _and he agreed with you_. AND YOU STILL HAVEN'T KISSED?!"

Cross sighed. "I don't know Chara, I don't think Nighty would wanna date someone like me." "What about anything he has ever said to you in the last five years makes you think that Cross. _Please_. I _need_ to understand."

"It's complicated..." "It's complicated my ass! If one of you doesn't grow a metaphorical pair soon, I _will_ take over your body and confess your undying love _for_ you." Cross glared at him. "Don't you dare." Chara just flipped him off. Eugh.

The two of them continued arguing as Cross got out of the shower. "Oh my god Chara will you just shut up?!" Cross slammed the bathroom door shut. "Woah there sweetheart, why so aggressive?" Nightmare said from his bed, obviously amused.

Both Nightmare and Dream knew about Chara, after all they were there when _it_ happened.

"Oh Chara's just being a little shit again." "DUDE HE CALLED YOU SWEETHEART. SWEETHEART! WHAT DOESN'T CLICK?!" "He meant that as a joke, stupid."

Nightmare snickered. "What is he talking about now?" Cross sighed. "It's nothing." "It doesn't seem like nothing." "It's unimportant okay?" A tentacle reached out to pat his head. "Whatever you say Cross."

Nightmare flipped a page off the book he was reading. "Well, he was bound to get annoying again soon. He's been very quiet these past days hasn't he? At least I didn't see you glaring at the air."

"He knows you so well Cross! He could even tell that I wasn't talking shit. You're literally soulmates!" "Or we grew up together and you've been like this for years now, so he'd obviously pick up on things because he's very attentive."

Chara raised an eyebrow and looked at him, obviously unimpressed. "I'm gonna go on a walk Nighty. Pretty sure Chara needs to cool off a bit." "Alright, have fun."

Chara was understanding enough not to comment on the fact that Cross was the one who needed to cool off, not him.

The ghost sighed, probably realizing that he wasn't going to achieve anything. "Sorry Cross." He said. "It's just kinda...frustrating sometimes. I guess."

"I know. It frustrates me too." "Then why?"

Cross sat down on a bench and looked at his hands. "He's _Nightmare_. Do you really think he has time for all that positive lovey dovey shit? Or wants it at all? I mean, even if he likes me, in the end I'll just bother him. Right?" Chara hummed in acknowledgement.

"I see where you're coming from.", he said. "But do you _really_ think you could ever be a bother to him?"

Cross didn't give him and answer and for once, Chara accepted that.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Geno: *breathes*  
> Reaper: you're hot  
> Geno: fuck of you creep  
> Reaper: ...  
> Geno: ...  
> Reaper: ...  
> Geno: ...  
> Reaper: ...so you liiiiike me?  
> Geno: maaaayyyybeeeee
> 
> Did I do it right? Is this Afterdeath?


	6. Geno is a disaster gay, Sci is a panicked bisexual and Fell is chilling

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Geno is painfully homosexual, so is Lust actually but he‘s bi and he really really just wants to hold Horror‘s hands so the two may have slightly different problems

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I imagine Geno being very nice to people like Sci or Blue but very "mean" with Reaper, Error or Nightmare. Simply because he can. 
> 
> And the beginning of This chapter was just exactly that.

Geno stormed into his dorm and slammed the door behind him. As soon as it was closed he crouched down and screamed into his hands.  
Like full on fucking screamed. He couldn't do this anymore.

Reaper had the audacity to be _that_ attractive _and_ an asshole? Geno would've liked to break all his rips, or hold his hand, or both, whatever worked.

"...y-you okay there Geno?" "I am _so_ gay." Sci seemed confused to say the least. "...what?" Geno sighed. "That's literally it. I'm gay and in pain."

"Hah, mood." Oh? He hadn't even noticed Fell was here. The skeleton was laying on his boyfriend's bed.  
Sci saw where Geno was looking and immediately panicked. "Oh- I didn't tell you he was here. I'm sorry I just thought that if you're meeting your cousin- no that's not an excuse this is your dorm too I should totally tell yo-" "Calm down babe, he isn't mad."

Geno smiled at Sci as reassuringly as he could. He was very anxious and always blamed himself for everything, luckily Fell was always around to stop him before he went too far. "Yeah Sci I don't mind. As long as you don't bring strangers in here it's cool."

He paused. "That doesn't mean you can fuck in here though. Do that somewhere else please." Sci's face turned bright blue as he choked on air. Fell on the other hand just laughed. "You don't gotta worry bout that Geno. I'm not into that."

Geno sat down on one of the chairs and pulled out his phone. He _could_ text Reaper. But that would seem desperate right? Right.

"Did your cousin bring a hot guy or something or why are you so worked up?" Oh. This was fine, he just had to play it cool. "What do you mean Fell?"

"Well you kinda ran here, slammed the door and yelled your gay out. Which definitely didn't work. And now you're looking at your phone and blushing." Welp, fuck that. Time for plan B: spill.

"Okay. _Okay_. Error brought his roommate. Friend? I'm honestly not sure. His name's Reaper." Sci now also sat down on his bed. "Oh? W-was he nice?" "Not at all. The guy's a total asshole! And worst of all he's good looking! So I asked Error for his number- and now the bastard's probably all smug too." Geno groaned.

Sci looked at him with sympathy. "People can be exhausting sometimes. So were you just gay panicking the whole time?" He laughed. "Oh yeah the whole time. I'll admit, not one of my best moments."

Fell chuckled. "Damm you horny people. Always making things hard for yourself and others." "Was that-" "Yes pun intended." Geno couldn't help but grin.

He turned towards Fell. "Come on, don't act like you've never seen a hot guy- or girl? Don't know what you're into but don't act like you've never seen a hot person and suddenly forgot how to talk." "Well, first of all both. And no, I told you I'm not into that shit. Sci gets like that sometimes though. It's funny."

"You bi panic in front of your boyfriend?" Geno was very positively surprised. Fell seemed like the jealous type. "It's not like I can help it! A-and panic is my usual state anyways..." Fell laughed out loud, almost shoving Sci in the process.

"Like I said it's funny. He gets all panicked and blushy and stutters more than usual. Sometimes he says and does the most stupid bullshit and I have to save him." "Babe no! He doesn't need to hear this!"

"Like that one time at a cafe where he thought the waiter was cute and accidentally spilled his tea all over him-" "Fell!" "Or that other time where this girl asked us to take a picture of her and her friends and Sci full on shut down and almost broke her camera because he dropped it- I caught it by the way." "Stop!"

Sci who was bright blue at this point was shaking his boyfriend, desperately trying to get him to shut up. Said boyfriend seemed to find this hilarious.

"Oh and one time-" Fell was successfully shut up by a kiss. His cheekbones now ever so slightly red. "That was enough embarrassing me for today okay?" "Sure, I'll stop for now." Fell threw an arm around the other, who let out a sigh of relief.

Geno put down his phone, at this point having completely forgotten about Reaper. "Well Sci, if it makes you feel any better, I almost died once because I thought a guy was cute."

The other two stared at him in disbelief. He cringed at the memory. "Yeah I was kinda awestruck and stopped in the middle of the road and almost got hit by a car." That had been way too close. He had been lucky that Error was there with him and yanked him away in time.

"Actually, there was also that one time where I let a guy punch me because he was handsome and let me tell you it _hurt_. I had to go to the hospital afterwards. Because, you know, my body's kinda fragile if it wasn't obvious." As strong as his magic was, his body couldn't take a lot. His life had been in danger at that time.

Geno chuckled. He had a thing for assholes didn't he? Like Reaper.

Oh. Reaper.

After a little while, Fell spoke up, seeming genuinely concerned. "Are you like, good?" "Apart from the eternally dying thing and regular hospital check ups? Yes, just painfully homosexual."

This seemed to end their conversation as Fell and Sci started talking about a Manga that Geno couldn't even pronounce in his head.

He sighed and picked up his phone. Fuck playing it cool he wanted to talk to the sorry excuse of a skeleton.

 **You:**  
Hey asshole

 **Ugly bastard:**  
Naw Geno is that you?  
Don't answer I know it is~  
Did you miss me already?

 **You:**  
I don't understand how you can say shit like this we met like half an hour ago

 **Ugly bastard:**  
You're just that cute Geno! I've been charmed  
And we both know that you've already totally fallen for me ;)  
I'm irresistible after all

 **You:**  
What the actual fuck is wrong with you  
I'm serious like- do you need help  
That much cockiness and asshole shouldn't fit into someone your size

Geno really knew how to pick them didn't he?

———

Lust was playing a game on his phone, waiting for Horror to come back.

The other had found the squirrel from the day before and was set on killing it this time, no distractions. That murderous look in his eye...Lust thought it was kinda cute.

Okay no who was he kidding it was super cute.

"Lust Look!" Horror came back, two halves of what once was a squirrel in hand. He was all bloody, and Lust didn't mind one bit. Why was that? Because he was smiling at Lust in the most adorable way ever.

...okay so he may have had some issues.

"That's great Horror! Now what are you gonna do with it?" "I dunno, eat it?" Okay this was it. That would be disgusting but...Horor was still cute. He would be even when eating a squirrel. Oh god.

"Just kidding. I don't actually know, I didn't think I'd get this far..." Horror looked down at his feet, a faint blush covering his cheek bones. Cute? Scrap that, he was absolutely adorable!

...And holding a dead squirrel, which he had killed himself, with an axe he always had on him.

"You didn't?" "No...Squirrels are super hard to catch. I do this a lot...maybe this one was just fat." Lust smiled at the other. "Or maybe you're just getting better?"

Horror paused and looked up at him, his eye seemed to sparkle as he looked at Lust as if he was the most precious thing in the world. "Maybe...but maybe I'm only better because you're here! Maybe you're my lucky charm..."

Lust was going to have a soul attack any moment now, he just knew it.  
How was Horror this precious? He wanted to cuddle him and give him food and head pats and hold his hand and-

Fuck that was cheesy. What was he even thinking? His name was _Lust_ for heaven's sake, shouldn't he be having impure thoughts about Horror instead of wanting to use him as a teddy bear?

Horror looked at him, obviously concerned. "Are you okay?" "Huh what?" "...you seem troubled..." Lust held his breath. What was he supposed to say? "Is it the squirrel? It's the squirrel. Sorry I'm disgusting..." "Nononono- Horror sweetie it has nothing to do with that!" Both of them were panicking now. Great.

"Then what's wrong?" Lust sighed, he wasn't getting out of this. "Could I...you know...get a hug?" Horror looked at him, completely perplexed. "...hug? Me?" He nodded.

Horror dropped the dead squirrel to the ground, (Lust was secretly glad) and did just that. Hugged him.

And _damm_ was it a good hug. Better than anything Lust was expecting. He immediately melted into the hug. Horror was warm and big and his clothes were fluffy and cozy and holy shit Lust was going to literally die in his arms so he could stay there for the rest of his life.

Content, he let out a sigh. As he pulled away, Horror was very obviously blushing. Lust chuckled. "Horror I cannot put into words how cute you are." Horror's head was literally glowing red now.

He mumbled something incoherent, Lust smiled. "You're gonna have to speak up Horror." "I _said_ , you're way cuter than me..."

Shit.

Lust couldn't do this. A purple hue now covered his cheekbones. It was decided, he was waiting exactly one week before he asked Horror on a date, just to make sure it wouldn't be too weird, and until then he'd have to be very careful not to mess up.

Operation make Horror fall in love with you began now. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sci is a panicked peace sign bisexual, Dust is definitely a finger guns bisexual, so is Cross actually but he's also a mean bisexual, so mean finger guns bisexual and Lust is a disaster bisexual and possibly a thumbs up bisexual.
> 
> No I will not explain or provide context for this I just know.


	7. Error and Killer both almost die for very different reasons

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It’s the first day of school!
> 
> Cross is nicen‘t for the first time in this story and Killer is traumatized but he also thinks it was really cool so it’s fine
> 
> Alternatively: Knock of Aizawa sleeps while kid is almost stabbed

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Friendly reminder that this plays in magic monster human country and I don't know how their school system works either
> 
> (Please there are so many different high school systems I'm literally in tears. I looked through so many. Why do some places have different names for different math classes? Algebra? Calculus? Just say maths???)

First day of actual school. Yay. The joys.

Ink already wanted to leave.

He could be spending his time on so many much more interesting things. Like drawing, or watching YouTube videos, or teasing Dream's way too grumpy twin.

Their homeroom teacher seemed nice enough at least. A tall human woman with a kind smile, maybe in her mid twenties?  
She didn't appear to have a problem with monsters, which made her way better than Ink's old teacher already.

She had introduced herself, but he already forgot her name. Oh well, he could ask Dream later. Yeah, Dream was also in his homeroom.

Dream's grumpy brother and his nice boyfriend (or well, apparently he wasn't actually his boyfriend because both of them were cowards or something? Dream seemed frustrated about it) were in another homeroom, unfortunately.

Ink looked around the room. There was an almost even split between monsters of different kinds and humans. Interestingly enough there was a total of six skeletons with him and Dream. That was...a lot.

Their teacher, he was going to call her miss mushroom in his head because she dressed like a cottagecore lesbian, pulled a book or something out of her bag. She was probably going to take attendance.

"Okay class, we're going to do this a little different than usual. We'll start with a student at the back. They have to introduce themselves and tell us one thing about themselves. Then the student next to them speaks."

Oh no. They were going to do one of those weird elementary school introduction thingies. Well, Ink supposed it could be worse. They could be given a "speaking sponge" that they have to pass on while they sit in a circle and whoever holds it gets to introduce themselves or something like that.

Miss Mushroom, that name really fit her, pointed at a cloaked skeleton in the last row. They honestly looked like they could fall asleep any second now. "You start, okay?"

The skeleton looked up, seemingly confused until a skeleton next to them, black bones and constantly glitching, whispered something in their ear. They stood up.

"I'm Reaper and uh...anything about myself? No matter what?" Miss Mushroom smiled. "Yes, anything as long as it isn't horribly inappropriate." "Well I'm Reaper and I'm your resident dumb gay bitch." He sat back down.

Quiet snickers could be heard from several directions. Ink didn't know what to think of this guy, their teacher seemed okay with this though. She only marked something in her book. Oh, so she really was taking attendance.

The skeleton next to Reaper sighed and stood up. "The name's Error and I'm a mistake." This time there were a few laughs. Ink couldn't help but grin either. "On a more serious note. I have Haphephobia. If any of you touch me I _will_ stab you."

The third skeleton in that row, this one dressed in all white except for a red scarf and _bleeding_ like it was nothing stood up. Very obviously not waning to be here. "I'm Geno and I hate Reaper."

Miss Mushroom laughed to herself. "This really isn't what I was expecting with this..." she mumbled. "Genocide Queen I assume?" He nodded and she again, marked something in her booklet.

This continued for a bit with nothing interesting happening until it was Ink's turn. He sat in the middle row so it didn't take too long. "I'm Ink and...like drawing?" Their teacher seemed relieved to have a skeleton say something normal.

Next was Dream who sat next to him. "I'm Dream and I have a twin brother named Nightmare! He's not here though..." And then there was the sixth skeleton. They had sat down next to Dream, which to be fair Ink would've done too.

In a room full of strangers, it was definitely the best move to go to the person least likely to be mean to you. In this case, other skeletons.

"I'm the magnificent Blue! And my favorite color isn't Blue! It's Purple!" This got a chuckle out of a student or two. How ironic.

Miss Mushroom mumbled something about Blueberry and motioned for the next student to go.

After the introductions were over, miss Mushroom told them some more stuff about the school that Ink didn't actually hear. He was too distracted by two birds outside the window. Sure, he'd registered that she was talking and had clearly heard her voice, but the words hadn't stuck with him at all.

Eventually Ink snapped out of it. He realized most of the kids were either talking with each other or on their phones. Dream was talking to the tiny blue Skeleton next to him, even tinier than Ink. He'd forgotten their name already.

"Hey Dream, what now?" The other smiled. "Oh we're aloud to do whatever we want for the last ten minutes or so. I was just talking to Blue here, he's super nice!" Ah, right. Blue.

The three of them fell into conversation quickly and yeah, Blue was really nice.

The three of them compared their schedules. Dream and Blue had PE together, Blue and Ink had both english and maths together, and Dream and Ink had art together.

They were also all in the same FACS class. Ink had forgotten what that acronym was for. But he was certain that it was basically a fancy word for home economics.

"Do you two think you wanna join a club?" Blue asked, clearly exited about this. "Not sure yet. But if I do then I'll definitively join the Art club." Ink, said. Dream giggled. "Yeah that suits you. I wanna join a club but I don't know which one. Gardening sounds fun though."

"Well the magnificent Blue is joining the cooking Cl-" "WHAT THE FUCK MAN?!" Geno, the oh so quiet skeleton from the back row suddenly yelled.

"Geno, sweetheart, it's not my fault- the school makes our schedules." "I know that! Is this some kind of sick joke? Like what the actual _fuck_." "It's not that big of deal." "Not a big deal?! Reaper we have almost _every_ class together what is this bullshit?! Also don't call me sweetheart!"

The glitchy skeleton. Error? He was dying.

His head was on his desk and he was laughing, hard, it looked like he was crying. He was glitching really hard and his voice went several octaves up and down because of it. It was almost cute.

"I didn't think Geno was that loud. Or swore that much. He seemed so calm before...", Blue mumbled. "You know him?" "Oh yeah. He's my roommate's boyfriend's roommate so we met two days ago. He was very nice! I would've sat next to him, but he kind of startled me when he yelled at Reaper before class so I went to you two..."

Ink tilted his head. "Well then maybe he just really doesn't like that Reaper guy. He did say he hated him." Dream laughed and shook his head. "The opposite actually. Look at his face, I'd say Geno actually _really_ likes Reaper."

Geno's face was bright blue. Blush? Ink didn't understand. If Geno liked Reaper then why was he mean to him?

Oh well, people were weird.

The bell rang, and Ink's first day of school continued. "Hey Blue, wanna sit with us at lunch?" "Yes of course!"

Ink looked back one last time, Error was still laughing. It looked like he had trouble breathing. That was...concerning. But hey it wasn't his problem.

———

Fell was very perplexed.

Their homeroom teacher, mx Brown, was asleep. _Asleep_. They literally didn't give a fuck, which Fell could respect, but still!

They had taken attendance and then said something like "do whatever you want, I don't care" and then started taking a nap. Wow, just wow.

And as if that wasn't all, Killer and Dust, the chaotic skeletons he'd met, one of which had immediately scored a date with his annoying (but also somewhat endearing) roommate, had decided to take over.

They just straight up commanded everyone to move their chairs and desks so they could sit in a circle and everyone did just that. Weird, but hey it wasn't like they had anything better to do.

The tall one, Dust if he remembered correctly jumped up and down in childish excitement. "We should totally play one of those stupid elementary school introduction games!" His friend Killer was just as enthusiastic. "Ooh yeah! But we've already heard each other's names." "Doesn't matter! Besides, neither of us payed attention and I doubt anyone else did."

Well, Dust did have a point, Fell didn't know anyone's name here but those of the people he already knew, but he sure as hell wasn't playing one of those stupid games.

...

Fell was playing one of those stupid games.

Killer had pulled a knife out of his sleeve (Fell did _not_ want to start questioning that) and named it the "talking knife". Whoever had it got to introduce themselves and say one thing they liked. Yes they had to throw and catch the knife.

So yeah this Killer guy was definitely crazy oh god.

The knife had a cover though, so they at least couldn't cut anybody with it.

Killer started. "I'm Killer Rahafwabas, I can't pronounce my name either and I like knives!" He stated happily. Ah yes. Knives.

Next was Dust. He liked "cute happy Skeletons with blue bows- please don't tell him I said that"

Fell couldn't decide if that was worse or better than knives.

Most other people (the whole class played along for some reason? Maybe because Killer said he liked knives and had so casually busted out a hidden one) said normal things. Like their favorite foods or animals. There was an interesting one though.

"Horror" a skeleton guy with a giant hole in his head and a creepy red eye couldn't decide between chicken nuggets, which was completely normal and dead squirrels, which was _highly_ concerning. Like _what_.

The whole class, even Killer and Dust, seemed a bit unsettled by this. But the guy next to him, Lust, a skeleton that seemed very confident in his appearance (which was good for him!) calmly pat Horror's head. "Don't worry.", he said. "Horror is harmless. As long as you don't try to hurt him. If you do he might eat you alive. I'm not entirely sure, don't think you wanna find out..."

Lust liked books by the way.

After a few more kids it was Sci's turn. His adorable boyfriend liked Horror movies. This earned him some surprise glances. Yeah, most people didn't expect that from the shy kid who couldn't go one sentence without stuttering.

Sci gave the knife to him of course. Fell couldn't think of anything he liked besides cats, so he said that.

He looked around, there were only five people left. Two humans and three monsters, one of those monsters was...interesting to say the least.

"Hey you, goopy kid." The goopy tentacle skeleton thing looked up. "Catch!" He threw the knife and a tentacle caught it.

"This is stupid. Why do we have to do this..." "Come on Nighty, it's like one sentence." The skeleton next to "Nighty" said. One cold, cyan eye _glared_ at the Skeleton and Fell suddenly had a lot of respect for the guy. That was one scary glare, and he simply ignored it.

"I'm Nightmare." Killer grinned. "And what's a thing you like?" Nightmare looked Killer in the eyes. "Men." He deadpanned.

Fell barely suppressed his laugh, so did Sci next to him, but that was nothing in comparison to Dust and Killer who burst out laughing. "Oh god- Dust! This one's my favorite yet!"

Nightmare groaned, a tentacle giving the knife to the skeleton next to him. "You go next, or whatever." "I'm Cross, and I like Nightmare."

"FUCK NEVERMIND- this one's even better!" Killer exclaimed. Dust agreed rather enthusiastically. This time Fell had to chuckle too, same with Sci actually.

Cross just smiled at Nightmare who was looking back at him with a blank expression. It didn't seem like he was surprised by that answer.

After the last three students had their turns, everyone started to talk amongst each other. Fell watched Killer do something incredibly stupid.

The idiot walked up to Nightmare and Cross. "So you, Nighty." Nightmare glared at Killer, who immediately took a step back. "Don't call me that." "But Cross called you that!" "Yeah and you're not Cross."

Fair point. Fell watched as Killer came closer again. "So Nightmare, about your whole goop thing." "What about it?" "Look what I have running down my face! We're goop buddies!"

This guy was a fucking idiot. Nightmare was _obviously_ not the type to be looking for buddies. "So as your goop buddy I was wondering..."

Nightmare seemed to get more and more suspicious and Cross slowly stood up. "If I can make your tentacles into a bow."

Oh wow. Wow. Killer was either absolutely stupid, suicidal, or both.

"I...no? Why would you even want to do that? Like what made you look at me and be like 'oh yeah I wanna make those tentacles into a bow'?" Nightmare seemed more confused than murdery at least.

"Oh come oooon. It would be so funny though." Killer reached for a tentacle, it immediately twitched out of the way. "Don't touch me."

Killer ignored that and tried to grab another tentacles, big mistake. "Don't be such a buzzki- HOLY FUCKING SHIT!" Fell had blinked once and next thing he knew was Killer was on his non-existent ass, a giant knife held to his throat. "He told you not to touch him."

What. The fuck.

Psychopaths. He had homeroom with a bunch of psychopaths.

Fell glanced over to mx. Brown. They were still asleep. Well, looked like Killer was gonna die. How unfortunate for him.

The poor guy was looking up at Cross, who was standing over him with the knife that had just suddenly appeared. "Woah that's- that's a nice knife yo-" Cross moved the knife the tiniest bit, it was now touching Killer's neck. It was only then that Killer seemed to realize his situation. " _Oh_. I- I think I should shut up now."

Nightmare looked at him critically, his one eye narrowing ever so slightly. He sighed. "Leave him be Cross." The shorter skeleton immediately complied. What was he, his guard dog?

Killer scrambled to his legs, obviously a little spooked and half hid behind the much taller Dust. "I think I just saw my life flash before my eyes." He said.

Dust looked Cross up and down. "Where did you get that knife?" "What knife?" Cross smiled and as he snapped his fingers the knife immediately fizzled out of existence.

Dust looked at him with a mix of terror and awe. "Okay how many people have you killed with that?" "None. Dream would totally kick my ass if I murdered anybody. And he's scary when he's mad..."

Fell had no words to describe what he had just seen and heard. This was just horrible and amazing at the same time.

"What the fuck kind of freak are you? What kind of magic is that supposed to be?! Like- that was super fucking cool but also what the fuck?" Killer yelled, still half hiding behind Dust.

A tentacle slithered around his waist and Killer was suddenly lifted into the air. "Hey let him dOWN OH CRAP!" The same thing happened to Dust.

"You know Killer. Maybe you should learn when to shut up." Nightmare said. Killer panicked and squirmed in the air while Dust just went completely limb, looking at Nightmare with slight amusement after realizing he wasn't actually going to hurt them.

The goopy skeleton chuckled. "Killer you're very tiny. Just like my brother." "I'm not _tiny_. Man, at least say short." "No, tiny makes you more upset."

Nightmare's grin suddenly disappeared. He looked at Dust, seemingly confused. Then the tentacle holding him seemed to squeeze a little. Nothing happened. "You should eat more." He said.

"What?" "You should eat more, you're very light...and thin."

What a rapid change in behavior! Was the scary tentacle monster with knife wielding guard dog...concerned for the other? Fell groaned. This was too much for today.

This whole day was too much actually. Weren't first days at school usually a calm but interesting new start? Well not this day apparently. Because Fell's homeroom was full of crazy people.

It was then that it dawned on him. Homeroom.

_This had only been first period._

The bell rang, and Nightmare let Dust and Killer back down. A tentacle immediately slithered around Cross‘ wrists, and he half dragged the other out of the room.

Oh okay. So they were leaving now.

Fell glanced to the side one last time.  
Mx Brown was still asleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was
> 
> I have no idea what this chapter was either tbh


	8. Friendship :D - Nighty doesn’t want it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Nightmare already loves his new friends but he’s too edgy to admit that
> 
> Also Fresh traumatizes like five kids

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Uhm so-  
> I j u s t realized something about this story.
> 
> Basically one of the characters in this is dealing with an eating disorder, more specifically anorexia.  
> Because that can be triggering to some people I will definitely put warnings on the individual chapters that deal with this.
> 
> For this chapter it's hinted at, but like in only one sentence and could easily be interpreted as something different.

It was lunch break now. Nightmare was...mildly irritated?

He really wouldn't have minded just sitting alone with Cross, but Dream had insisted that they ate together. At first Nightmare had been worried, how was his brother supposed to find new friends when he always hung around the scary looking Nightmare?

But that at least wasn't a problem. Ink was...Ink and he apparently liked Nightmare?  
That little squid shit was way too not scared of Nightmare, and he was really bad at reading the room too, so sometimes he said things that really annoyed people or made them uncomfortable without realizing.

It was almost funny and endearing. _Almost_. Nightmare didn't actually like him and his bluntness or anything.

The two had made another new friend, his name was Blue. Blue was happy and exited and quite frankly annoying, but at least he was definitely the kind of person Dream liked.

It was not like Nightmare had already sworn to kill anyone who dared to make the ridiculously short skeleton sad.

So the five of them had been sitting at a table, Cross and Nightmare on one bench, the other three across from them, which was _okay_ because Ink and Blue only really talked with Dream and were nice and respectful and all that. He also had Cross pressed up to his side, his tentacles doing their thing again. So that had been nice.

 _But then_ the absolute fucking idiots that were Killer and Dust suddenly appeared at their table and happily asked if they could sit with him. "Hey Nightmare! Cross! You'll let us sit with you guys right?"

Nightmare wanted to shut them down, but Dream had already smiled and answered them. "Yes of course! Are you my brother's friends?" He seemed so hopeful as he asked that. Nightmare couldn't bring himself to yell "no".

"Oh yeah we are! We're the _best buddies_ aren't we Killer?" Killer took a second to respond, he had just been staring at Dream, seemingly distracted. "Oh yeah! We sure are."

And that had been the moment Nightmare wanted to quit.

They were _not_ his friends.  
He _didn't_ think they were funny.  
And his tentacles definitely _didn't_ twitch the tiniest bit when they sat down, which als _wasn't_ him showing excitement like a dog with its tail.

He and Cross had scooted over on the bench to make space for the idiot duo. But the bench was meant for three people, so Cross was half sitting in his lap now. Which he didn't particularly _mind_ , but hey the idiots had still inconvenienced them!

He sent Cross a meaningful look, the other just shrugged.

"Oh Dust! Good to see you!", Blue exclaimed. The taller idiot was blushing ever so slightly. Ew. Dream noticed this too, but he seemed delighted by this.

Nightmare silently listened to the conversation while eating his food. Blue and Dust had a date on Wednesday apparently? Though he wasn't sure if Blue realized it was a date. Both Dust and Blue were blushing a lot at least.

Well, he hoped it would go well.

...

Not because he was rooting for Dust or anything. He just had a feeling that if it _did_ go bad Dust would come crying to Killer, and then Killer _and_ Dust would come to annoy him and Cross. Because for some reason the two had obviously grown attached to the guys who had threatened one of their lives. They were so weird.

Killer apparently liked hyping his friend up, so the conversation then drifted towards how good looking Dust was? Nightmare was beyond confused at this point, and really just wanted them to shut up.

"Dust you're literally so hot you could get all the guys and gals you wanted." "Bro are you serious?" "I could never lie to you bro." "Bro!"

Nightmare was _this_ close to shoving tentacles down their throats. But then. "Get a room you two oh my god!" Cross was a godsend. Nightmare's tentacles squeezed him lightly, a sign of appreciation.

The two did shut up, but then Killer looked at them amused. "You tell _us_ to get a room? Cross aren't you practically on your boyfriend's lap right now? And being almost completely covered by his hentai tentacles?"

Someone snorted, and Nightmare was pretty sure that it was Ink.

It _was_ true that Cross was half on his lap but that was only because Killer and Dust had taken their space! Also cuddling was more convenient this way, and the tentacles had pulled him there.

And yes his tentacles were enveloping most of Cross right now but then again Cross wasn't exactly _tall_ so it wasn't hard to do so.

"...they're not hentai tentacles." Cross deadpanned, as if that was the only thing he heard from that sentence.

"Yeah sure, keep telling yourself that!" Dust snickered. "They're definitely hentai material." Ink agreed. Why was it always the idiots that got along and teamed up? Why couldn't they not get along and then start fighting each other instead?

"...oh, and Nighty isn't my boyfriend." Right. He wasn't. Sometimes he forgot.

All of them stared, except for Dream, he just groaned. "He's...not?", Killer asked, clearly in disbelief. Blue jumped out of his seat. "Wait wait wait- you're telling me you two are not dating?!"

"No? What's so shocking about that?" "Cross you are kind of cuddling me while almost sitting in my lap." "Okay yeah good point."

Dream sighed. "These two are hopeless, this has been going on for five years now." "Since you were ten? Seriously?"

"He doesn't like me that way." Both Nightmare and Cross said at the same time.

Dream slammed his head on the table and the others looked at them in absolute disbelief.  
Yeah, sometimes Nightmare couldn't believe this shit either. It was sad, really.

Cross subtly glared at what was seemingly nothing. The twins snickered knowingly. "Shut the fuck up Chara...", he whispered.

Nightmare wondered what the ghost brat had said, but deep down he already knew.

After that, the teens fell into normal conversation once again. Nightmare and even Cross, very reluctantly participated.

At some point Nightmare had noticed Dust subtly pushing away his still half full plate, and had glared at the other until he'd gotten the message and continued to eat. Though that stayed between the two of them.

"Hey tentacle man do you wanna finish my second slice of apple pie for me? Kinda sorta gonna throw up if I eat one more bite."

Hey, maybe Killer wasn't that bad.

———

Geno was going to cry

Like actually full on burst into fucking tears.  
Why was life so- no actually why was life?

Why live, what was the reason?

Why live if life hated him enough to have him have almost all of his classes with that one cocky asshole guy, who as also highkey hot, that he had been gay panicking about since the moment he'd first laid his eyes on him?

He groaned into his hands. "Naw Geno sweetheart, aren't you feeling well?" He was going to kill a bitch. A lazy, cloak wearing bitch.

He was sitting next to Reaper, who was sitting next to Error, who was sitting next to the wall so he'd have to worry less about people touching him.

But it wasn't just the three of them.

Lust and Horror, two very _interesting_ skeletons that Reaper and Error had previously befriended were sitting across from them.

And then there were Sci and Fell, the only people at this table that Geno knew and would openly admit to liking. Because Sci was a sweetheart and Fell was funny and chill.

Horror seemed cool though, maybe they'd bond over the _hole_ "looking like they should most definitely be dust by now holy shit how are you even still alive" thing.

Yes pun intended.

Error was still clutching his chest, the poor guy had laughed so hard, he glitched out and had gotten some trouble breathing. Then again he was laughing at Geno's misery, so it served him right.

"Error, you alright there?", Lust asked. He seemed sweet. "Y- yeah. M'fine. Just- just air." "Hah mood." "Fell how is that a mood?"

"Well sometimes I get bad anxiety attacks and it ain't the same thing but then I'm also just like yeah, air." Fell chuckled, the others looked at him in concern. Geno played with his food. "That doesn't sound good, you okay?"

"Oh yeah. Besides if it gets bad Sci knows how to calm me down. We can calm each other down." Lust frowned. "Each other?" "O-oh yeah. I get panic attacks sometimes. They're no fun. But then I'm also kinda like air."

Reaper snorted. "What is it with your air?!" Error, who had finally calmed down completely, slammed a fist on the table. "Dude, trust me. You only realize how nice air is when you suddenly fail to get it into your magically nonexistent lungs."

"Oh yeah definitely." "He's not wrong." Fell and Sci agreed.

"WAZZUP BROSKIS!"

Everyone screamed or flinched. Well, Error's scream was more of a mix of a demonic screech and the windows sound thingy but yeah. Poor glitchy fell out of his chair too, and they couldn't even help him up without touching him and therefore freaking him out even more.

"Dang Gltichy brah that's harsh. Aren't cha happy ta see your all time favorite cousin?" "I _despise_ you Fresh. Please go back to where you came from, colorful hell."

Geno though Fresh was a bit much from time to time and often got startled by him, but Error? Error was _terrified_ of the guy.

Terrified to the point where he had violent fight or flight reactions. Geno was pretty sure that Error would've rather hugged a random stranger than be alone in a room with that dude for twenty minutes.  
It was mildly concerning.

He personally liked Fresh. Sure, he could be exhausting sometimes, but he was good guy and he was always willing to help Geno with his English homework. (Which he was very good at for some reason? You wouldn't think that with the way he talked.)

Fresh had also been the first of the three to out himself. Which was great because that made it a lot less scary for the younger two. (The gay cousin squad!) So all in all, Fresh was cool.

"Why the ~~fuck~~ **funk** are you even here?!" Another funny thing was that Fresh censored swear words for some reason? Geno really didn't get it. Fresh crossed his arms over his chest. "Well Glitchy, ma super awesome broski senses were telling me that ya had a diddly darn bad time earlier. Me being the radical brah man that I am, I came to check up on ya!"

Error seemed surprised. "I...are you serious?" Fresh nodded, his glasses now spelling "Duh!" Instead of "Yolo". It seemed like Error didn't know what to say. "I'm uh...good now...thanks..."

"I can see that Glitchy! And I see that ya made some super rad looking new pals. Also how you doing Gen?" "I'm fine, thanks." "S'good to hear! Well, I gotta go."

Fresh grinned and adjusted his glasses. "I'm all for ma super antisocial cousins making new pals, but if any of ya'll hurt them you'll pay with your life!"

Wait what.

"Catch ya'll on the flip side!"  
And he disappeared in a cloud of rainbow colored smoke. He was gone as sudden as he had appeared.

For a few seconds everyone at the table was completely silent.

Then Fell spoke up. "What the fuck just happened."

And then everyone broke down.

Sci was in tears. Geno wasn't sure if it was laughter or fear or if he was just overwhelmed. Fell was trying to comfort him but he was also crying.

Lust was upset- no he was absolutely _appalled_. "Was I just...threatened by a ninety's nightmare? I feel like he could kill me just by making me look at him for too long. What were those colors?!"

Horror was somewhat calm, simply clawing at the hole in his head, but it was clear that he was shaken up. Geno was sure he could hear him whisper something like "and I thought _I_ was scary".

Reaper seemed very...confused? Also somewhat scared. "Who was that? What was that?" "Our cousin." "Yeah his name's Fresh." "You two are related to... _that_?"

"Yeah honestly don't know why." "Error don't be mean he came all the way here because he was worried about you." "How. How did he _know_."

Reaper and Error continued to freak out. "He always sees everything! How is that possible?!" "Like- something was just _off_ about him. And where did he even come from?! And what the fuck was the cloud thing?!"

"You two need to take a chill pill." " _What we need is answers!_ ", Realer yelled while Error looked at him in absolute terror. "That's totally something he'd say..."

Geno sighed. Wow, his new friend group seemed to have _lots_ of braincells.  
Great.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so. This will probably never be brought up in this story, but in this Au it's canon that Fresh chased Error around with a kiddie bike with training wheels and a water gun while singing all stars over and over on repeat, when they were like twelve.
> 
> Just- just felt the need to share that.
> 
> Also, Error doesn‘t have asthma because he’s a magic skeleton and he doesn’t have lungs and all that shit.  
> But he has the monster/magic equivalent to it, which is less bad than the actual thing.  
> So, he gets "asthma attacks" when he glitches out too bad. It‘s not life threatening, but painful. All he needs is to calm down.


	9. Cross likes Nightmare. A lot.

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cross really REALLY likes Nightmare-
> 
> Dream is a bad boi for the first time, his future boyfriend do be a bad influence.
> 
> Said future boyfriend also tries to steal Nightmare‘s man smh
> 
> And Horror just thinks a lot

"Mister Smith? Some eleventh grader from your homeroom called Fresh blew up three canvases in the art room."

"Wha- how?" "Beats me." "...I'll be leaving you kids alone for a bit. Behave." Dream could only watch in shock as their biology teacher quickly left the room with his colleague.

It was the second day at school and some kid had already managed to blow something up? That was...impressive.

This was second period, he shared this class with Cross and Killer, which was very convenient because all the tables in this classroom had space for three students.  
Dream was in the middle, Killer was to his left, closest to the window, and Cross sat on his right.

His childhood friend didn't even look up at their teacher's sudden department, he just sighed. Cross was always like this when Nightmare wasn't around, quiet and bored. Dream knew for a fact that his brother was very snippy and grumpy at the other side of the school building right now, even more than usual.

Being literal soulmates _did_ come with a few disadvantages after all.  
Good thing they shared all their classes but two.

Killer had noticed this and snickered. "Naw Crossy, are you feeling down now that your boyfriend isn't here?" "No but yeeees." "What?"

Cross groaned. "No because Nightmare _isn't_ my boyfriend, but yes because what the fuck am I supposed to do if he isn't here?" Killer shrugged. "I dunno, what do you usually do when you're bored. You don't spend every second of your life thinking about him do you?"

"Well not _every_ second, but most of them..." Dream laughed, he couldn't help it. "Killer, I don't think you understand the extend of Cross' obsession with my brother." His friend began blushing. "I'm not _obsessed_. I just devoted my entire existence to him!"

Dream laughed even more, Killer snorted. "Cross." "Yes?" "What's my brothers favorite color?" Cross raised a nonexistent eyebrow, but answered without hesitation. "Black. He likes violet too though."

"His favorite food?" "Apple pie."

"His favorite kind of sweets?" "Dark chocolate, but only the Hershey's one."

"His favorite memory from when we were little?" "That one time we went to the lake and you tripped and fell into the water, so I tried to grab you but you just dragged me down, so I tried to hold onto him but also dragged him down, which meant we all fell into water. Then we all got sick and spend the next two days sleeping in one bed, watching movies and telling each other jokes until the fevers went away."

"His biggest fear?" "He fears fear itself. That's phobophobia."

"How long does he take to brush his teeth?" "1 minute and 54 seconds on average. Give or take two seconds."

Highly amused, Dream glanced at Killer. The other smirked. Yeah, no obsession. At all. "Does he have a favorite tentacle?" "Killer why would my brother have a favorite tentacle?" "He doesn't, but he has a favorite thing to do with each tentacle."

Wait what?

Dream stared at Cross in disbelief, Killer could barely contain his laughter. "Well, he usually uses the top right one to grab, lift and throw things. The top left one is to catch things or deflect them when they're thrown at him. The bottom left usually holds onto things when he needs them for balance, and the bottom right one is very affectionate, it's the one that grabs my wrist and also always the first one to cuddle."

He was genuinely caught of guard by this. "Cross what? I didn't even know that." "Oh that's fine, I don't think he does either. I just noticed it."

"...are there any other things you know about brother?"

Cross smiled, clearly exited to talk about Nightmare. "He always hugs his bottom right tentacle when he sleeps. He stirs his tea 4 and a half times. He washes his hands for 17 seconds. He chews a piece of toast an average of 24 times before swallowing it, again give or take two. He takes around 35 seconds on the toilet. He-"

"Woah woah woah- what? Cross no one knows shit like that about other people." Killer was laughing now, his expression a mix of amusement and genuine concern.

"Well I've known him for forever, so I was bound to notice right? Besides, it’s not like he doesn’t know the same things about me. He made me tea not so long ago and he stirred it six times, like I do. That was the first time he has ever done that." "Cross I've known my brother since birth and I don't know those things, no one does."

The taller skeleton mumbled something incoherent into his scarf. "Sorry, can you repeat that?" Cross sighed. "Well, you don't feel about Nightmare the same way I do, do you? So we can't compare that."

Killer leaned towards Cross. "Oh, so you _do_ admit to being in love with him?" He scoffed. "Duh. What part of I devoted my entire existence to him was unclear?"

"You know, the line between being very in love and very obsessed is super fucking thin and I'm honestly not sure where you stand on that Cross." Killer chuckled. "Like I said, I'm very devoted." "Sure let's go with that."

Dream was about to say something else when their teacher returned. A frog monster, around his height and wearing a suit. With that, the lesson continued.

Cross payed attention to his every word and did the things good students were supposed to do. He was just like that, unless Nightmare was the one distracting him of course.

Killer on the other hand didn't seem to give a single shit about the lesson. He doodled on his paper and looked outside the window, clearly bored.

Dream noticed that the doodle was a frog standing on two legs, wearing a suit. Oh, it was a monster.

...

 _That was their teacher_. He only barely held back his laughter, what an interesting caricature.

Dream took a pencil and carefully added a bow tie and a top hat to the drawing. Killer wheezed, and quickly played it off as cough. Everyone else seemed to buy it.

Killer added one of those fancy canes that men with top hats in old movies always had, Dream drew a rose in his mouth, Killer drew him a mustache. The two giggled amongst themselves, trying not to get caught. It was fun.

Cross glanced at their paper, grinned and shook his head. He then immediately returned to taking notes. Why was he writing this much anyways? No one else seemed to be writing _this_ much.

Oh well, that didn't matter. Before he knew it, he and Killer had drawn funny little figures, mostly animals or monsters, all over Killer's notebook. And then the lesson suddenly ended.

Dream panicked. "Shit. I didn't pay attention at all!" Cross chuckled. "Yeah, you were too busy flirting with Killer."

"Killer did you get anything mister Smith said?" The other shook his head. "Nah, I don't usually pay attention in class. Sorry, didn't know you're actually trying to get good grades, shouldn't have distracted you." "It's fine, it's mostly my fault."

Cross sighed. "Dream don't look so down. Here." He handed Dream a piece of paper. Those were his notes. "But don't _you_ need the-" Cross then gave another paper with the same notes to Killer, who accepted them obviously surprised but with gratitude.

"...you wrote those down three times." Sometimes Dream didn't understand Cross. "Huh, yeah? Noticed neither of you were listening to anything he said. Otherwise you would've freaked out when he said we're probably writing a test next week already."

"We're doing _what_?" "Yep, one of those teachers. Wants to see at what level we are or some shit like that. But he also already said lots of stuff we're supposed to know. I wrote that down for you."

The two shorter skeletons just stared at Cross. Then Killer grabbed his hands. "Cross if the thing with Nightmare doesn't work out after all please marry me." He said, sounding dead serious. Dream giggled. "If Nightmare doesn't propose soon you two have my blessing."

"Calm down dude, they're just notes." "No Cross you don't understand. You're literally the most perfect person I-" "Hey what's taking you idiots so long?!"

Nightmare was standing at the door, he had obviously ran here wanting to meet up with Cross and Killer, both of which he shared his next class with.

His eye drifted to Cross' hands, which Killer still held in his. "What's...going on here?" "Oh hi Nighty! Nothing really."

Dream hesitated for a second, but then decided to throw Killer under the bus. "He just proposed to Cross." " _Oh_." That single word was filled with so much malice, it was actually impressive.

His brother glared at Killer, making him flinch in fear and then a tentacle (the bottom right one, Dream wasn't sure what he was expecting, but it still shocked him that Cross was correct) slithered around Cross' wrist. "Let's go Cross." He walked away.

Killer was frozen in place for a few more seconds, before realizing that the two were leaving him behind. "Shit. Bye Dream! See you at lunch!" He waved at Dream while running after them. "HEY WAIT YOU DICKHEADS!"

"What did you just call me?!" "What did you just call Nightmare?!"

Dream waved back, chuckling. Nightmare was funny when jealous.

Wait- what did Cross say about him and Killer flirting?

———

Horror and Lust had chemistry.

As in they had the class, in school, together, right at this moment.

The pun was still intended though.

Horror couldn't concentrate. No matter what, he found himself glancing at the other. Lust was, to put it simply, angelic.

Sure, he seemed to have a very dirty mind and all that, but he was still angelic. The way his smile was every word for beautiful there was, and how he sometimes hiccuped when he giggled, and how graceful he always moved and of course his ability to give the best head pats!

Horror didn't know any other word to describe him but that. Right now, Lust was struggling with whatever their teacher had written onto the board (Horror didn't care at the moment, really) and chewing on the end of his pen. It was adorable.

Then, suddenly, something fell and made a clicking sound.

For a few moments, Horror was confused. It sounded like a pen falling onto a hard but light surface. But he absolutely could not pinpoint where the sound came from. It sounded like it was everywhere but nowhere. Like it was inside of his head, but-

Oh. It was inside of his head.

Horror reached into his skull and pulled out a pencil. It was...a nice pencil. His prior confusion was forgotten as he inspected it. It was pink with a little plastic butterfly at the end.

The butterfly's wings were thin and felt nice. He could even move them a little. They made a nice sound when he lightly scratched the glitter on them, that same action felt good too.

The sound of his fingers clicking against the pencil was just like any other pencil. Familiar, almost boring, yet intriguing. It _was_ a nice sound, it was satisfying.

He heard snickering behind him and turned around. Right, the pencil had come from somewhere.

A human boy and a bunny girl. They were clearly amused by this. Horror frowned, but before he knew it they had thrown something else into the hole. This time it was a rubber. (An _eraser_ , not a condom. The day someone threw a condom into his head would be the day he _actually_ committed murder holy shit.)

He growled at the two, the girl squeaked and both of them quickly shut up. Pathetic really. Those people who made fun of you but the second you looked at them angrily they pissed their pants.

Oh well, he was used to it. No matter where he went, people would think of him as a Freak. This was at least better than people running away in fear.

Even Error and Reaper, who he'd come to like had been wary of him at first, he could tell. (Though they _did_ immediately calm down after getting to know him, so they were fine.)

The other two skeletons, he couldn't remember their names, but weren't they dating? Well, regardless of that they had definitely been wary at first too.

The only people who hadn't reacted strangely had been Lust and Geno. Lust had been a first actually. And Geno looked like he should be dusting at all times, so giving Horror weird looks would've been hypocritical.

Hypocritical...what a nice word. Such a complicated one too. He bet no one would expect him to know it. To be fair, half of the time he wouldn't be able to remember the word.

But hey, a chunk of his skull was missing. Memory was hard.

Where was he?

He suddenly realized that the pencil he had been twisting in his hand to keep himself distracted wasn't his. Horror looked around in confusion, then his gaze landed on the two kids behind him.

Oh. Riiiiiiight.

As long as they wouldn't target Lust, he didn't care. He knew for a fact that some people would probably have mean things to say about the way his beautiful friend dressed, including these two wanna be bullies. He would just scare them away.

Scaring people was easy. Well, half of the time he didn't even have to do anything. Just stare. But when he pulled out his beloved axe it was even easier, and funnier.

Horror lightly scratched the inside of his skull, the sound it made was satisfying, and soothing. How long had he been doing this? He felt like it had been a while, but he was only doing it consciously now. It wasn't as satisfying now that he had to think about doing it. Huh, shame.

He glanced back at Lust.

And suddenly he was back at the beginning, unable to form any coherent thought that wasn't about Lust.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ...Oh okay so Horror is neurodivergent now. I mean, at least he gives me the vibes the way I wrote him. I dunno why it just kinda happened.
> 
> His axe is just...his one item. I can't explain it, but if you know, you know. For me it's a pair of scissors. I went to the trouble of buying a second pair just so I wouldn't have to share my scissors with others at school, because they're my scissors. I also talk about them a lot...
> 
> Next chapter will have the Dustberry Date!
> 
> And after that is pain :D


	10. Dust is a mess, but really what 15 year old isn‘t - also Cross is kinda cute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dustberry goes on their not-date!
> 
> Also a lot about Killer is "revealed" for some reason. The author just had a Killer brainfart apparently

"KILLS IM GONNA DIE!" "Calm down Corpse boi. You got this." "NO I DONT!"

 _Crunch_. Cross bit into his breakfast chocolate bar, completely ignoring the idiots in front of him and instead playing a game on his phone. This one was crunchy, Nightmare wondered what was in it for it to be this loud.

He groaned. Dust had been freaking out for five minutes and Killer had been failing to get him to shut up. Nightmare wished he could just ignore them like Cross, but he couldn't help but be annoyed.

Him and Cross had decided to eat breakfast early today, Dream hadn't joined them saying it was too early to eat anything. But they had met up with Killer and Dust (who was a fucking mess) in the cafeteria.

"Dust." Nightmare said. The other immediately snapped around. "What?!" "Shut the fuck up or I'll strangle you." That seemed to do the trick as Dust at least stopped yelling.

Cross snickered while unwrapping his second chocolate bar. "What are you so worked up about anyways? You whined so much but I still have no idea what you're on about." "I'm not _whining_. I'm just nervous."

Killer who had finally taken a bite out of his sandwich spoke without swallowing. "Hesh exshited for hish daaaate~" "It's not even a date!" Nightmare frowned. "Killer you're fucking disgusting."

Cross was now almost done with his second chocolate bar and Nightmare was wondering how many he'd eat today. He knew that he had at least two more in his pocket. "You mean the date with Blue?" "Not a date!" "The not date with Blue then. Don't worry about that, Blue likes people too much for you to be able to fuck that up."

"That's...somehow that's very reassuring coming from you." Dust said, now finally calming down. "Is it? I'm flattered." Cross said sarcastically while unwrapping his _third_ chocolate bar of the day.

"No seriously. Killer is too nice to me to actually say something mean and Nightmare just wants me to shut up, which is fair. But you seem very honest. You're also the least weird person at this table." Cross shrugged while munching on the chocolate bar. Its package had a purple cow on it, and Cross made sure to rip it so it would look like the cow was decapitated.

Yeah no. He was definitely one of the weirdest people Nightmare knew, but he didn't bother correcting Dust. Killer seemed to be having similar doubts, as he glanced at Cross and began snickering.

Nightmare silently wondered what exactly Killer was thinking about. He hadn't know Cross for long enough to know about any of the other's weird habits or the ghost brat, had he?

He took a bite out of his toast and felt Killer’s eyes on him. With Killer‘s creepy dead eyes this was mildly unsettling but he ignored it.  
He tried to figure out what was so interesting while he chewed, but when he swallowed, Killer began laughing uncontrollably. Nightmare was just straight up concerned now.

Dust looked alarmed too. "Killer?" "24 times! I-it was actually 24 times! I- you- Cross is definitely the weirdest here what the fuck." What was 24 times and what did Cross have to do with it? Oh well, if Cross hadn't told him yet it probably wasn't important.

Now finishing his fourth chocolate bar and being seemingly content, Cross leaned against Nightmare. One tentacle immediately curled around him. "Dust, aren't you eating anything?"

Oh, yeah. Nightmare hadn't noticed, but unlike Killer and him, Dust didn't have a plate and unlike Cross he wasn't somehow pulling chocolate bars out of the apparently infinite dimension that was his pocket.

Dust just grinned. One hand found its way to his hood, he tucked on it a bit. "Nah, it's way too early to eat. I'd probably just feel sick." He nervously glanced to the side. "I'll just eat later."

That was a lie, Nightmare could tell. But he wasn't going to say anything, really, what was he supposed to say? Skipping breakfast once in a while wasn't going to kill anyone. Not even Dust.

What did intrigue him though, was the way Dust had glanced to the side. It reminded him of something, something he saw someone do very often.

He glanced at Cross, who was still pressed against him and playing on his phone.

Oh well, it was none of his business really. He didn't care enough to question it.

———

Blue was excited. Like really super duper extremely exited.

Dust was going to go to that candy store with him! Blue had been looking forward to this the whole time. Turns out it wasn't just any store, they let you make your own sweets too! Blue thought that was the coolest thing. Sure, he could've went alone, but the idea of Dust taking him there made him all giddy.

Dust was funny, and nice! Last night he had stayed up until midnight texting the other. Dust always had the best memes and he was willing to listen to Blue ramble about the things he was passionate about. Like tacos, or his big brother.

Blue always tried to pay attention in class. The teachers were trying the best to teach them and that should be appreciated! But he couldn't wait for the last lesson to end. He immediately shot up and ran away as soon as the bell rung.

Blue ran up to the big pine tree and waited. He couldn't stand still, constantly swaying from side to side and when he saw Dust approaching, he sprinted towards him.

"TACKLE HUG!" He exclaimed as he jumped at the taller skeleton. Both of them fell to the ground, Blue still clinging to the other.

They looked at each other for a few seconds and then burst into laughter.

Dust poked his cheekbone. "Damm I didn't expect you to be the first one to try to kill me. Nightmare or Cross, or maybe even Ink, but not you." "Well, you see, I'm a skilled assassin. You didn't realize until it was too late, for I have taken you down." 

"Pfffft- please, have mercy and grand me one last wish." "And what would that be?" Dust dramatically raised his free arm (the one that wasn't being crushed by Blue oh god) to the sky. "Tell Nightmare that Cross likes him back!"

Blue giggled, now finally standing up. "Your wish shall be granted. Sorry for that by the way, I got too exited." He offered Dust a hand, which he gratefully took. Blue pulled his friend to his feet. "It's fine, no worries. I'm just light, even for a skeleton. It's very easy to knock me over."

The two of them then began to walk to the store. It was a twenty minute walk, but it felt shorter than that. They laughed and joked the whole way there, Dust even walked against a lamppost once.

"...and then he proposed to Cross. Or at least that's what Killer told me." "Oh my, and Nightmare didn't kill him?" "Trust me he was surprised too."

"Funny thing is, he told me that he thinks Cross is kinda cute. Not just kinda, like actually really cute." Blue gasped, how scandalous. "But he's basically taken so obviously he won't do anything. Now Killer is scared shitless that Nightmare's gonna notice and rip him into tiny gay pieces."

He chuckled, poor Killer. "Then again. Being ripped into tiny gay pieces probably isn't the worst fate. I mean, you _could_ be ripped into tiny straight pieces." Dust's nonexistent nose scrunched up. "Ew, straight. Yeah that'd be worse. But now that I think about it, I don't think Killer is gay? Oh wait we're here!"

In front of them was a cute little shop. Pastels and flowers and all those things you'd expect from a candy store were present. The two friends grinned at each other before entering.

Inside they were immediately hit with the scent of, well, sweets. That smell that could probably give most people a headache, but they were skeletons so they were fine.

A young human greeted them. He was short, had a mohawk and his hair was dyed light green. He wore heavy eyeliner, there was almost no space on his ears that wasn't pierced and he had a huge bandaid on his cheek, probably covering some nasty bruise. He was also wearing a pastel pink apron.

Everything about him screamed that he didn't belong in this cutesy shop, but somehow he fit right in. It was almost unsettling.

"Hi! You're Killer's friends aren't cha?" "Yeah we are. He actually knows you? I kinda thought he was kidding when he mentioned that..." Dust seemed genuinely surprised.

The boy- man? He was the kind of person you looked at and couldn't decide if he was 15 or in his twenties, either worked. The _guy_ chuckled. "Can't blame ya. With Kills you never know, but yeah we go way back. I'm Avery by the way and today you two are getting premium treatment! You can thank him later."

Blue was going to cry this was the best day ever.

As it turned out, Avery's parents owned the shop. "Yeah I can do whatever the fuck I want here. I could be selling weed in here and they wouldn't give a shit. Hey, maybe I should try that." He said while leading them into a room in the back.

"Killer called me a few days ago, asked if I could arrange something cool. Nothing exiting ever happens here, and now that my partner isn't here to take my mind of things on my breaks it's super fucking boring." Blue decided to ignore that thing about his partner.

"So I'm _glad_ you two are here. Now, let's make some good fucking candy, shall we?"

Oh and they did.

They got to pick out flavors and colors and designs and all that! Then they watched Avery masterfully form the sugary paste. They were making some hard candy and lollipops right now, Avery told them that they'd move on to cookies next.

"Though to be honest, while our cookies and cakes and shit taste good. If you want _really_ mouthwatering pastries you should just ask Killer." Blue was munching on one of the treats Avery had given them as very important supplies for their hard work. This one was a chocolate bar. "Killer? Why?"

The human looked at him in bewilderment. "Ya don't know? His parents own several bakeries and he's really good at making goodies. Real fucking proud of it too. It's why we met, our parents were working together for some kids event and then they left us alone together."

Dust took tiny sips of his souda. "Oh yeah, he mentioned something like that. Didn't know he was _that_ good though." "Trust me, anything he bakes tastes amazing. My personal favorites are his chocolate chip cookies."

"Chocolate? Oh damm. If they're really that good maybe he can win Cross over after all." Blue laughed and shook his head. "Never. Not even chocolate could win him over." "You think? I dunno, I did see him refuse Nightmare's cuddles until he finished his breakfast chocolate."

"Hey woah woah woah- don't leave me out. Who's Cross?" Avery leaned forward, obviously exited to gossip. "Oh, just this guy who Killer thinks is really cute but doesn't have the slightest chance with." Well, Dust was being honest, but still- Ouch, poor Killer.

"Why, is he straight?" "Nope, but madly in love with another goopy guy that would probably brutally murder Killer if he even looked at Cross the wrong way." "Sucks to be him I gue- _oh holy fucking shit I forgot the cupcakes_!"

Avery ran of to somewhere, leaving Blue and Dust alone. Well okay then. Avery was a little odd, but nice enough. It was then that Blue noticed something. "Dust, you haven't eaten any of the treats yet." "Yeah I'm...not really hungry right now." "Dust we're in a candy shop I can't be the only one who eats candy!"

Dust sighed and grabbed a random candy bar. "Fine..." He unwrapped it and held it to his mouth, he then quickly glanced to his side, he was clearly hesitant. But before Blue could question that, Dust bit into the candy bar.

The expression on his face could only be described as relief. He quickly swallowed the bite, then he took another and then he shoved the whole thing into his mouth. " _Fuck_ I forgot how good these are. There's no stopping me now Blue, I'm eating the whole goodie plate and you don't get any."

"Hey! Just now you didn't want any!" "I changed my mind." "Well then I'm gonna eat all of them before you can!" "Calm down you two I can bring more! And you do realize we're literally in the process of making even more right?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Killer can bake and he will spoil his future boyfriend with homemade treats.  
> Which yes is still Dream, I just thought I'd make him suffer a little more by giving him a one sided crush (that he will n e v e r act on because he knows Cross likes Nighty) because really, I gotta bully someone in this fic. But also the crush couldn't be Nightmare because I just can't have something make sense can I?
> 
> Avery will probably come back at some point and embarrass the shit out of Killer. He's nineteen by the way.
> 
> Also sorry that this chapter took longer than usual. I finally got to play undertale myself for the first time and I forgot to post the chapter because I finished the neutral and then true pacifist route on the first day and played until midnight lol.


	11. Dust cries, but he‘s not allowed to do that anymore - He deserves this

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dust is in pain. It hurts, it really does. He‘s hungry too.  
> But that’s okay, he deserves it doesn’t he?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Okay so- the usually memey vibe this story has? Not in this chapter.
> 
> Warning for:  
> -eating disorders (more specifically anorexia? Kinda?)  
> -vomiting  
> -blood (or well, bone marrow? I used the word blood, but it's bone marrow)  
> -self loathing  
> -suicidal thoughts  
> -kind of self harm 
> 
> But like, it’s really a lot less not wanting to eat, than just wanting to hurt.
> 
> (none of this is too graphic, but it's there. So proceed with caution)
> 
> Dyrus = Dust!Papyrus  
> You know the deal, floating ghost head and gloves of Papyrus that says a lot of things that shouldn't be said

Dust was...not okay.

He had taken one bite, _one bite_ and then he had lost control. Unable to stop himself, he had eaten and eaten and eaten until even Blue couldn't keep up with him anymore. _He was so fucking stupid._

That gnawing feeling in the back of his skull had gone ignored, his brother's constant yelling at him to stop had turned to nothing but whispers in mere seconds.

Dust had fucked up. Bad.

But he had just been so _hungry_. It felt like he hadn't had a proper meal in _ages_.

...

Excuses, excuses. He was making up excuses for his own stupidity.

Dyrus would be so disappointed in him. His poor _precious_ little brother didn't deserve such a shitty brother.

He had only realized what a terrible mistake he had made when Blue and him had arrived back at school. Dust had frozen in shock, barely being able to say goodbye to his friend without stuttering.

And now here he was, standing alone, thinking about how much of a screw up he was. "Oh brother..." He was back. "Dyrus I-" "You should be ashamed."

Dyrus sounded so cold, so condescending. But hey, that was exactly what Dust deserved, wasn't it?

His phone vibrated in his pocket, he pulled it out with shaky hands.

 **Murder man:**  
Soooo how'd it go?  
Wait no tell me in person  
I'm in Cross' dorm rn, come over  
(Oh and Nightmare's ig)

 **You:**  
I'll tell you later, I'm tired  
Ima go to our dorm, you stay with the pining idiots

 **Murder man:**  
Weird- but okay??  
See you later then?

 **You:**  
Yeah

"That was rude brother. Do you really want to upset your friend? You're lucky that he hangs out with you at all." Dust sucked in a breath. That...hurt. This was the first time Dyrus had made a comment about Killer.

"I know, Dyrus. But I need to be alone right now. Gotta make up for the shit I pulled." That earned him an approving nod. "Yes. Yes, you have to make up for it."

Dust sighed, he always hated this. But he deserved it. _He deserved it._

And he would be in way more pain knowing that he didn't try and make up for it. That he just ate as if his brother never happened. As if he didn't matter anymore.

Everything happened in a haze after that. One moment he was on the stairs of the dorm building, next he knew he was in his dorm, the door was locked behind him. He'd gotten here so quickly, weird. Maybe he had teleported without realizing? But he couldn't teleport more than a few meters just yet, he was still practicing.

...he must've teleported, yeah. No wonder he was feeling lightheaded. But that didn't matter, he'd feel a lot worse in a few moments anyway.

Dust stumbled into the bathroom. The door was locked behind him quickly. Slowly, _hesitantly_ he opened the toilet lid. He stared.

He didn't want to do this, not really. "Do it brother. You have to." But he couldn't say no to that could he?

He kneeled down, summoned his soul and gently took it in his hand. Dust looked up at his brother, into those haunting eyes. Dyrus nodded, Dust took a deep breath.

He squeezed his soul as hard as he physically could.

Immediately, pain shot through his whole body. Every part of his body was yelling at him to stop, but he couldn't. He just couldn't.

Dust could feel something coming up his "throat", he leaned forward, he gagged. It burned. Holy shit it burned, it felt like he was gagging up acid.

And then it was in his mouth, it didn't taste like anything. But maybe, yeah. Yeah, it tasted like pain. He opened his mouth and a sticky purple substance came out. Good, he had felt like he was choking on it.

Then again, this was far from over, he had only just begun.

 _That_ was pure magic.  
And his equivalent to vomit.

Because monsters like skeletons didn't digest food and instead directly absorbed the magic in it, it was pretty easy to get rid of. Neat, wasn't it?  
All he had to do, was hurt himself until there was barely enough magic left to sustain his physical body. Easy.

So _easy_ in fact, that all he had to do was to force out the magic out of his very soul, and his body's physical reaction would do the rest. The only downside was that it hurt, it hurt more than anything else Dust had ever experienced and every time he did this it hurt even more.

"But you deserve the pain too. It's good, it'll teach you a lesson." Yeah, because the more pain he went through the less he'll want to repeat this right? So he won't fuck up like today again. _Right_?

He softened his grip on his soul, letting it recover for just a few seconds, before squeezing it one more time. Somehow, Dust really didn't know how, it hurt even more than the first time.

His hand felt sticky now, that was probably the magic he was squeezing out of his soul. Even if it wasn't, he didn't care right now.

He felt like his life force was being sucked out of him. In reality, he was actually pressing it out. Again, he could feel the vomit coming up his throat, again he tasted that weirdly neutral but unpleasant taste of pain, again he felt like he was choking on it. Dust felt like he was going to die.

And hey, maybe he would. If he overdid it he very well could. But Dyrus would stop him before it came to that, wouldn't he?

Dust did it again. This time, he had to brace himself on the toilet, otherwise he would've collapsed. His grip on his soul loosened this time, he didn't have the strength to hold it anymore.

At least he couldn't taste the vomit this time, he didn't have enough magic left for his tongue to stay summoned anymore. Or maybe he had, who knew, all he knew was that his tongue was gone now.

He would probably die trying to summon an ecto body now, so low on magic was he. Funny, he'd turn to dust right then and there. It was almost tempting. "Don't do that. I wouldn't want the last thing I see of you before you die to be your fat ecto body."

Dyrus didn't want him to die, how sweet. His brother really did love him.

"Of course I love you, you should never doubt that. But when you eat like that I question if you love me. I mean, first you let that octopus force you to and then the blue one convinced you so easily. I feel like you don't care about _me_ at all!" Oh yeah, he had done that. The guilt was unbearable, he couldn't put them above his little brother. He couldn't put anyone above his little brother, not even himself.

Especially not himself.

He tried to speak, to apologize, but Dust could barely _breathe_. Every time he moved even an inch his whole body hurt, heck his whole body felt like it was falling apart even when he didn't move. But this was his fault, he had inflicted this on himself.

He was trembling, and the trembling hurt, a lot. Tears where rolling down his face. Oh, so he had enough magic left for _that_?

"Why are you crying brother?"

Dust tried to speak again, but he couldn't force the words out. He could only barely look up at his brother. That didn't matter, he knew that Dyrus knew what he was thinking. _It hurt._ He was crying because it hurt. So. Much.

"...what makes you think that _you_ have the right to cry?" He didn't. Dust didn't have the right to cry. He was being such a baby, so pathetic.

"You don't get to cry _brother_." Dyrus' voice was filled with so much malice. Did his baby brother despise him too now? Had he finally done it? "Not after you watched me die."

He could understand that, he despised himself too. "I starved brother! I starved and you did nothing! And what do you do now? You go and eat more than anyone could ever need just because some tiny blue bitch told you to!"

Yes he did that. Dust was such a horrible monster. He didn't deserve to live, his brother had deserved it way more. "Don't you feel disgusting? You're basically shoving it in my face! That you're alive and can eat as much as you want and I _starved_. It hurts you say. Well, what do you think starving felt like?!"

He _did_ feel disgusting. "The least you could do was get rid of the food again, so why are you crying now that you did? You don't get to cry because you hurt yourself while fixing your mistakes." That's right. He was just suffering the consequences of his actions.

"...I-I'm sorry bro. I'm so _sorry_." He somehow, _barely_ croaked out. "...you should be. You're so selfish."

Yes he was. Dust was selfish and pathetic and a crybaby and a horrible big brother. Dyrus deserved a better brother, just like he deserved to live.

...unlike Dust. He should've died instead.  
He should've done something, _anything_ , but no, he was too useless. This was all his fault and he deserved to suffer.

Before he knew what he was doing, Dust had slammed his skull against the wall.  
It stung. His whole body felt like it was ripping apart from the sudden movement, and his skull felt like it was going to split open.  
He did it again. This time it hurt even more, it _really_ hurt. Good.

That was good right? His mind was fuzzy, but he should definitely be doing this right now. Right? Because he deserved to be hurt. If he shouldn't be doing this, Dyrus would be yelling at him to stop. Dyrus always told him what to do and what not.

Dust did it again and he swore he heard something crack.

And again- something dripped into his eyesocket now. Oh, he was bleeding. A shaky hand reached up to touch his skull, and yeah, he had a crack now, and it was bleeding.

"You deserved that, brother." "I know."

It hurt.

For some reason, he didn't mind anymore. That scared him a little.

As much as he hated how pain felt, it was scary to know that he _wasn't_ bothered by it right now. Dust was afraid. He wasn't sure of what, maybe it was himself?

"I think...I can forgive you now." And then, everything was suddenly okay again. Because Dyrus forgave him, because he had made up for his mistakes.

Man, Dyrus sure was awesome. He forgave him even after he was such a horrible brother.

The pain in his soul, and his head, and his whole body really, was just...gone. His fear, his anger at himself, his guilt. In that moment, They just stopped.  
Everything was gone actually, he didn't really feel anything. Dust felt numb.

And that was okay. Everything was okay now, Dyrus was satisfied so everything was fine. Dust smiled.

Slowly, the world became fuzzy. That was okay too, he never stayed conscious for long after his little sessions. He'd wake up in time, Dyrus would scare him in his sleep again, he always did.

And if Killer walked in on him...then... "Tell him you slipped and hit your head on the sink." Yeah, yeah he'd go with that. Dyrus was so smart.

He could feel himself passing out, but he was _fine_. And he'd do this again if it would make Dyrus happy, even though he had hated it, even though he'd been in so much pain. Because Dyrus deserved the world.

...

The nice moment was over right before he passed out. He realized something.  
He realized it but he would never admit it, not to himself and especially not to Dyrus.

So during those last three seconds before everything went black, he was overcome with guilt. Dust really wanted to hurt himself even more. He deserved that, he deserved to suffer for it, to be punished. Had he learned nothing at all from this whole thing?

Dust was hungry.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Was I in physical pain while writing this?  
> Oh yes absolutely.
> 
> Do I still kinda like this?  
> In a very weird way, yeah.
> 
> Take this as my form of venting. This fic will probably be like 90% memey gay bullshit and then these chapters happen in between
> 
> Also, I couldn't really make Dust a serial killer in a Highschool Au so I went with Dyrus telling him to hurt himself instead.  
> Gave him a wonderfully painful backstory too! It will be further elaborated on later in the story. 
> 
> There’s this one comment in the Cross likes Nightmare chapter where I talk a lot more about the whole magic food thing. You know, in case that what I wrote in this chapter didn’t make any sense.


	12. The aftermath - also SciFell are nerds

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> (Mostly) Dream, Killer and Cross fuss over Dust, who is in a bad mood. (Sheessh I Wonder why, maybe it’s because the author made him suffer for literally no reason)
> 
> Also SciFell fight over magical girls because they‘re nerds

**Fuck Cross' dad**

**BrotherWhoLovesMe:**  
Dream are you in your dorm rn?

 **You:**  
Yeah y ?

Ink looked over his shoulder. "Why is your group chat called that?" "Because that man is an asshole." His friend snorted. If only he knew that Dream really _really_ meant that.

**Fuck Cross' dad**

**BrotherWhoLovesMe:**  
Yeeeaaaah Killer's coming over  
I think he wants you to heal him or something

 **You:**  
What? Is he hurt?

 **Brother's boyfriend:**  
No idea, he just called us sounding really panicked after he went back to his dorm

 **BrotherWhoLovesMe:**  
Like really panicked I think he was crying lol

 **Brother's boyfriend:**  
And then he asked if we could heal, but we're both shit at it so we sent him to you

 **You:**  
okay?

Someone knocked on their door. Ink jumped up and walked over. "Oh that's probably Killer. Wonder what he- ohshitwhathappenedtoyou."

"I'll explain later can someone _please_ heal him now?!" Dream gasped in shock. Killer was not alone, Dust was with him and heavily leaning on his shorter friend. There was a long, still somewhat bloody crack in his skull, right above his left eye socket.

Ink threw a pillow on the floor for Dust to sit on, Killer shoved him onto said pillow and Dream kneeled behind him. He took a deep breath, and placed his hands on the crack. They immediately started to glow light green.

Cross and Nightmare were always doing dangerous things or picking fights, so Dream had become really good at healing.

"That's a nasty crack you know. Good thing I still have more than enough time to heal this before the crack becomes permanent...", Dream mumbled. Dust sighed, he shuffled a bit. "I dunno, would look kinda badass wouldn't it? Also I'd be all matchy-matchy with Fell."

Killer sat down on the floor, he looked stressed. Was Dream imagining things or was a little more goop than usual running from his eye sockets? "Not funny Dust. We both know that you'd get random headaches for literally ever and would have a glaringly obvious weak spot. That would suck." Dust shrugged and shuffled some more. "Hold still please." "Sorry."

Ink stood with his arms crossed over his chest, he looked serious for once. "What even happened?" Dust groaned. "I slipped and hit my head on the sink." "You _what_."

"You heard me." Dream didn't really believe that, no way this was because of a sink. He looked at Killer, the other just shook his head. "I dunno. When I came back he was standing in front of the bathroom mirror trying to wash off the blood. It was already dry though."

"Yeah that's because I was passed out for a while." "Wait what?" Dust's gaze was fixed on the ground, that way he didn't see how the other three were all looking at him with concern.

"There, all better." Dream regarded his work, it was as if the crack was never there. "Thanks..." Killer seemed to finally relax a little, his goop was back to normal too. "Fuuuuuck. Dream you're a lifesaver."

"...sorry." Everyone looked at Dust with concern once again. That sounded so not like him. His voice had been timid and soft, almost _scared_. Well, there was more to every person, but this felt wrong.

Ink kneeled down so he was at eye level with Dust. "What are you apologizing for?" "Uhm...you know...troubling you. All of you." Killer immediately jumped to his feet. "Oh holy fuck man don't apologize! You didn't get hurt on purpose."

Dust flinched. Huh. Normally he wouldn't get startled by the sudden change in volume, right? Yeah, he wasn’t bothered around Blue. Dream wondered if it was something different. Regardless of that, he gave Dust a comforting smile. "Yeah and all we really care about is that you're okay now, right Ink?"

"Yep! But it's late now, you should rest now Dust don't you think?" Even though Ink was horrible when it came to communication, he had somehow made it very clear that that wasn't actually a question.

The two left, Dust seemed a bit better. Dream heard him snickering at one of Killer's jokes before Ink shut the door.

Dream immediately went to text Nightmare and Cross.

**Fuck Cross' dad**

**You:**  
Soooo  
Killer just dragged Dust here  
And Dust had a really nasty crack in his skull for me to heal :)  
Like- it was as big as my palm!! which I know isn't that big but it's still too big

 **Brother's boyfriend:**  
I'm sorry w h a t  
How tf did he manage that

 **You:**  
He said he slipped and hit his head on the sink  
I'm not rlly sure if that's true tho  
Looked a lot worse than that

 **BrotherWhoLovesMe:**  
It isn't

 **Brother's boyfriend:**  
You seem very sure about that

 **BrotherWhoLovesMe:**  
I am  
I knew something was off istg-  
Keep an eye on him okay

 **You:**  
Yeah okay

 **Brother's boyfriend:**  
Yes sir

If his roommate had been literally anyone else, they would have asked him why he looked so concerned right now.  
Ink was Ink though, so he asked Dream if he had ever eaten a crayon.

The next day, Dream didn't see Dust until lunch. And he looked horrible oh god. "Man you look like shit." Ah yes, Ink had such a way with words.

Dust looked...tired. Exhausted. Which was concerning because as a skeleton, he would have to be _really_ done with just about everything for it to show on his face so clearly.

Cross shoved a glass of water across the table, he stopped when it was directly in front of Dust. "You good?" "Yeah, just didn't really sleep last night. Have a headache too."  
He grabbed the glass of water and downed it in one go.

Without looking away from Dust, Nightmare held his fork with chocolate cake on it in front of Cross' mouth, who ate it without questioning it. "Aren't you gonna eat anything?", he asked. "You didn't eat breakfast either."

"I'm not hungry." Killer turned to his friend, concern written on his face. "You sure? Not even like, one cookie? You look like you could really use some more magic right now." "I _said_ I'm not hungry."

Dust seemed mad. It was good that Blue had decided to eat with his roommate and his friends today, really. He would've been pretty worried.

Later, after school, Dream saw Nightmare hiding behind a corner. "Brother what are yo-" A tentacle covered his mouth and pulled him into hiding too. His brother pointed towards something. Oh.

Cross was talking to Dust. From their hideout, Dream couldn't hear them, but he saw how Cross shoved his chocolate milk carton into Dust's hands and then left with one last friendly wave. That was odd, Cross never shared those.

Dust looked at the milk in his hands for about ten seconds, before slowly bringing the straw to his mouth. He drank it.

Cross walked to where Nightmare and Dream were hiding. "Oh hi Dream, when did you get here?" "Just now. Also, what was that?"  
His friend smiled. "Oh don't worry, it was nothing."

———

"Stop lying to yourself. We both know that Usagi would kick Madoka's ass"

"How fucking dare you say that? Madoka is obviously superior, she'd wipe the floor with her."

Reaper sighed, this had been going on for five minutes. Error walked up to their lunch table, and looked at them in confusion. "What the fuck is going on?" Geno made space for his cousin to sit. "They're fighting about magical girls. Just let them be."

Fell and Sci were glaring at each other, clearly heated about this. "Sci, Madoka is a god. She is, and I quote 'an ineffable, omnipresent force that guides the lives of all Magical Girls of the past, present and future'. She's way cooler!"

Sci was not having it. "Nope, Usagi is still better. Sailor Moon is the most powerful being in the galaxy." Were they really fighting about this? "Also her outfit is prettier than Madoka's." Wow, just wow.

"You take that back!" "I'm only telling the truth!"

Blue, who had joined them today, seemed very concerned. "They aren‘t usually like this, are they?" Geno shook his head. "Usually they're all lovey dovey. I guess they have their priorities straight." Reaper snorted. "Straight." "Oh you _know_ what I meant."

Horror and Lust arrived too. Lust looked at the two fighting dorks, clearly confused. "Don't question it." Reaper said before motioning for them to sit down.

As Horror sat down, his gaze never left Sci and Fell. "But like? Pink hair and pink dress? That's so generic." "She looks good! And at least her hair is pretty, Usagi looks like she's wearing spaghetti on her head."

"You did _not_ just say tha-" "What about Cardcaptor Sakura?" Everyone at the table turned to look at Horror who had very seriously asked that question.

"What?" "I mean...what do you think about her outfits?" "That’s...you know, she _always_ looks good." "Yes Tomoyo is incredible she made the cutest outfits."

And somehow, with just one question, Horror had stopped the fight and turned it into Sci and Fell gushing over some magical girl's costumes. Wow. Reaper wondered if this would be less or more funny if he actually knew what they were talking about.

"My favorite is the episode three one. It's adorable." "The frog rain coat? Yes that one was very cute but what about episode 43?" "Ooh the twin card one right? That one's super cool too!"

Reaper chuckled, Fell always called Sci a nerd but he really was one himself. Who remembered the exact episode that a character wore a certain outfit in? It was actually kinda cute how the two were so passionately talking about some silly little anime. They really did fit together.

"I don't know if this is worse than them fighting or not.", Error noted. Geno shook his head. "Come on Error, let them be. Also this is definitely better than them fighting, I think Fell was about to get violent."

Blue excitedly jumped up and down in his seat. "Yes this is most certainly better than fighting! They look very happy now! How'd you do that? And uhm, what's your name actually?" The bigger skeleton shrugged while absentmindedly biting into his burger. "Just...got em to talk about something they'd agree on. And, I mean, everyone likes Sakura's outfits. Also I'm Horror, this is Lust."

"No idea who Sakura's supposed to be sweetie, but that was very impressive." Horror blushed. Wether that was because of Lust praising him or the affectionate nickname, Reaper would never know.

The couple was _still_ going at it, and they seemed completely unaware that the others were talking about them.

Ah yes, young love. (Were they all the same age? Yeah. Did Reaper care? No, not really. Besides, he _was_ the oldest of them, his birthday would be soon.)

Speaking of young love..."Hey Blue. How'd your date with Dust go yesterday?" Reaper snickered in satisfaction as Blue's face immediately turned, well, blue.

"It wasn't actually a date!" Lust giggled at that. "Dust, huh? Well you certainly seem to be just as energetic as him." Horror scratched the inside of his skull. "Dust...s'that the tall one or the short one?" "The tall one."

Reaper had already noticed that Horror had trouble remembering things, names included. From what he had seen, Killer and Dust (who he had yet to talk to, they seemed fun) were always together, so it made sense that he hadn't actually made a differentiation between them.

There were also two guys Horror had talked about, that he had referred to as "goopy thing" and "black and white puppy". Reaper didn't know whatever the fuck that was supposed to mean, but apparently Killer had annoyed the goopy one, so the other one threatened him with a giant knife. And that had literally been their first day.

Needless to say, Reaper really wanted to meet those two.

"Hey ugly bastard." "Yes Geno?" "You haven't touched your food." Reaper looked down at his full plate, oh. Yeah, maybe he had gotten a little distracted today. Time to shove everything down his nonexistent throat so he wouldn't finish last!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fell and Sci are both huge nerds. And they both immediately shut down anyone who has something negative to say about their favorites. It just doesn't work on each other.
> 
> Also I'd just like to add that Horror legit stopped them from having a full on fight. (Which Fell would've held back in, because he is stronger no matter how you put it lol)
> 
> Oh and it may seem like Killer's overreacting a bit at the beginning, but there's a good reason. He's one of my favorites so I obviously can't have him getting away without some ✨trauma✨


	13. Sleepover time!

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dust and Killer invite their friends to a sleepover!  
> How exciting, I know

"Okay so hear me out. I say, we force Nightmare and Cross to a sleepover. Dream and Ink too if they wanna."

Killer smirked, he liked that idea.  
It was Friday and school had just ended. He was walking next to Dust, who had fully recovered from his weird sad state. (At least, for now.)

"I'm in. What about Blue though?" "Oh he has plans with his brother." Killer wiggled his nonexistent eyebrows and lightly punched his friend's shoulder. "Oooh so you know about his weekend plans? You two are so close already." "Shut up before I tell Nightmare about your crush on his boyfriend."

Killer groaned, even thinking about that made him frustrated. Cross was so cute and sweet and funny and reliable _and had a giant knife that he held to Killer's throat which Killer totally didn't find super attractive_ and he was _right there_ and Nightmare just didn't do anything? That hentai reject was so lucky and for some reason still hadn't asked Cross out, what an idiot!

(Well, Cross could always just ask Nightmare out. But hey, Killer was a busy man. He couldn't always consider all possibilities, he didn't have the time for that.)

"Hey Kills, you better get your jealousy under control, they're right there." "I'm not jealous Corpse boi- oH hEy Cross!"

Wow, what the fuck was that voice crack? Killer wanted to burry himself that was so embarrassing. Nightmare was conveniently standing right there, talking to Dream. And wherever Nightmare was, Cross was too.  
Ink was just hanging around, probably because he gave Dream his key to their dorm out of fear of loosing it.

Cross snickered, and then bit into a chocolate bar. (Oh god how many of those did he eat in a day?) "What where you two talking about?" "Oh! Dust and I were thinking about having a sleepover!" Killer quickly answered before Dust could say anything embarrassing.

Ink leaned forward, clearly confused. "A sleepover? Don't you already share a dorm?" "Pffft, no you misunderstood. We were gonna get other people to sleep over in our dorm. Actually, those other people are you four." Dust quickly explained to Ink, who seemed absolutely baffled by that possibility.

"Wait really? That sounds so fun!" Dream was beaming now, his smile was contagious. Nightmare on the other hand frowned. "What makes you think I'm gonna agree to that?" "Do you not want to go?"

Cross looked at his not boyfriend, a hint of disappointment on his face. Nightmare seemed to immediately regret his words. "Hahah no I was just messing around you know. Of course I'm gonna go, I mean, I don't have anything better to do right?"

They all shared a look. Wow, just wow.

After that, they all went to their respective dorms and agreed to meet up in an hour. Killer and Dust were tidying theirs up. It already had an ungodly amount of socks and empty chips packages everywhere, and the bathroom had some Dust on the floor next to the toilet for some reason? Weird.

Well, after cleaning up and moving their table into the bathroom, Dream and Ink showed up at their door. They had brought blankets, pillows and some snacks. After another five minutes Cross and Nightmare arrived too, bringing similar luggage. It was around five pm now.

"Okay so what do we wanna do?" Killer asked everyone in the room. Dust looked at him as if he was stupid. "Sleepover things, duh." Cross shook his head. "But it's still to early for truth or dare and spin the bottle, you gotta do that late at night."

Killer swore he heard Nightmare, who was standing next to him mumble "It's never too early to dare Dream to do something embarrassing.", but he didn't comment on that.

"What actually are sleepover things? I've never been to one."

Everyone turned to look at Ink in disbelief. "Bro that's just sad." "Dust! That was uncalled for."

But Ink didn't seem bothered by that comment, instead he seemed a mix of amused and confused. "I mean, I'm pretty weird. I just didn't have any friends growing up, no big deal." That actually was kind of a big deal, but Ink obviously didn't want pity so Killer wasn't going to dwell on it. He had friends now at least.

"Besides, I can't imagine Nightmare or Cross having sleepovers with anyone. They literally hate everyone except for the other and maybe Dream." The goopy skeleton scoffed. "We have sleepovers with each other, duh. Dream joined too, most of the time."

"Can they really be considered sleepovers when he practically lives in our house?" "I mean, good point. But we did have sleepovers before I kinda sorta moved in, right?" "True."

"Hey you all are totally getting distracted! Ink has never had a sleepover we like- have to introduce him to sleepover culture." True. Killer couldn't believe that he had failed to see the obvious matter at hand, good thing  
Dust was there to enlighten them.

So, in typical sleepover fashion, they all sat down in a circle on their blankets to talk about their crushes. Well, they didn't mention the crush thing, but deep down they all knew it was going to come to that eventually.

"Okay, so what game are we playing first?", Dream asked very seriously. They had all agreed to start the games sooner for Ink's sake. "Never have I ever?" Ink looked at Killer in utter confusion. "Isn't that a drinking game?" "Dude, you can just play it without the drinking."

Nightmare spoke up, even he played among. "We start with never have I ever, then we do the cringy gossip thing, then we play spin the the bottle." Everyone was okay with that plan. They should be saving truth or dare for even bigger sleepovers with more people. Was this foreshadowing? Perhaps.

Killer turned towards Ink. "You know how never have I ever works?" "Yeah, I think. But when do we stop?" "You put up ten fingers, or five if we want a quicker round, but we're doing ten. Instead of taking shots you just put a finger down and the last one with fingers wins. Almost no one ever finishes though, people usually get caught up in the dumb shit that's revealed and then they forget about the game.

"Okay, got it." "I wanna start!", Dust exclaimed, clearly exited. "Okay let's go then." "Never have I ever...eaten at a five star restaurant." Dream, Nightmare and Cross all put a finger down. Ink seemed surprised. "That was targeted right? How'd you know?" "Dream and Nightmare are obviously rich kids!"

"It's my turn now..." Killer pondered for a moment, he was always bad at this game because he wasn't trying to win. He just wanted to know who did weird shit. "Never have I ever tried to eat a crayon when I was above the age of ten." He was not surprised to see Ink and Dust putting a finger down. Nightmare was a bit of a shock though.

It was Dream's turn next, and he did not hesitate. "Never have I ever had a crush on the same person for more than three years." He glared at Nightmare and Cross as they both put their fingers down at the same time. Wow, Dream really was sick of this wasn't he?

"Never have I ever baked something that tasted good.", Ink said sheepishly. Okay, so Ink sucked at baking, and he had just made everyone put a finger down. He definitely understood the game at least?

Cross seemed to think for a bit, then he smiled. "Never have I ever failed a test at school." It was notable that this was the first time Nightmare didn't have to put a finger down, that was probably on purpose. Dust, Ink and Killer himself all put down a finger.

Nightmare smirked. "Never have I ever felt any sort of sexual or romantic attractions towards someone of the opposite gender." He was weaponizing his gay now, oh no. Everyone but the twins had to put a finger down.

"Dream didn't you say you were straight?" "I mean, yeah I said that. But I've never actually felt attracted to a woman. I'm just going with default settings until I figure out what the heck I'm supposed to be." "Ah."

And so the game continued.

Despite this being his first game, Ink _really_ knew what to say. He had chosen to say "never have I ever played never have I ever before" in the second round and "never have I ever been to a sleepover before" in the third. Making everyone put down a finger both times.

Other honorable mentions included Killer's very own "never have I ever been tall", which had led to a rather heated discussion about wether Cross counted as tall or not (he did in fact count as tall, because he was taller than Killer even if only a little) and Dream's "never have I ever had daddy issues" which was very obviously targeted at Cross to get him back for exposing that Dream cried when watching my little pony. Damm, Dream was vicious when he wanted to.

"Never have I ever committed a crime.", Nightmare said while putting his last finger down. "Did you just?" "Yeah, I don't really care about loosing. I just wanna know who else has committed a crime."

Killer hesitated before putting a finger down. It would be fine right? Nightmare had done it too. To his surprise, literally everyone put a finger down.

They all stared at each other in silence for a few seconds, before Dust spoke up. "Okay _now_ you all gotta spill. What kind of crimes did we commit? I'll start, shoplifting and pickpocketing."

Killer chuckled. "Yeah I did that too once, shoplifting I mean. It was some stupid dare. Also I think assault? When you get into a fight with someone and you throw the first punch it's basically assault right?"

"Ooooh my crime was also a dumb dare.", Ink said. "Pickpocketing though. I gave the stuff back of course."

Nightmare, Cross and Dream all glanced at each other, seemingly unsure. "You really wanna know?", Cross asked. Killer nodded enthusiastically, Dust and Ink did the same.

"Well...", Nightmare began. "I have two. One is trespassing, the other is second degree murder." "Are you serious?" "Very."

Killer stared at his friend in disbelief. On one hand he would be lying if he said he was _really_ surprised, but on the other hand what the actual fuck? The others seemed to have similar reactions.

"Ah, mine's just murder. Second degree too, I think?", Cross then added. Yeah no this was very weird.

Dream smiled. "Mine is trespassing." Killer sighed in relief. At least one of the three was somewhat okay. "Oh and arson."  
...Killer was taking it back. They probably all needed help.

"...where were we?", he asked eventually. "Actually, I have no fucking idea. Let's just talk about more important things now." Dust was definitely correct, it was time to move on.

Ink seemed intrigued. "More important things like?" "Like who you have a crush on Ink! Or someone who you think is cute." Dust leaned forward and got all giddy, like a little girl.

"I...uhm..." "Oh come _on_ there has to be someone right?" "I mean there's this one guy..." "Yes?!"

Rainbow colored blush dusted Ink's cheekbones. "I mean, I don't know him in real life. He's an online friend, we've been texting for three years now. He...I kinda..." Killer smirked, so Ink _did_ get flustered. "Haha yeah we get it. Tell us about this mystery guy."

"Oh! Is he the one you always chat with until late into the night? And then you giggle and blush like an anime girl in a cliche romance anime?" "Dream shut up!"

Cross, who had now snuggled up to Nightmare again (seriously, how did they always do that without anyone noticing?) playfully nudged Ink. "Okay now you _really_ have to tell us about him."

"Fine! But don't expect me to shut up anytime soon. Well, uhm, his name's Glitch. Not his real name but you know what I mean. We talk every day. He's a huge dork, _super_ socially awkward but very sweet, to his friends at least. He always listens when I go onto rants about my hyperfixations and he always tries to cheer me up when I'm upset. Which he‘s horrible at, it’s just very cute when he tries and that makes me smile. Oh and he likes crocheting! He's really good at it, sometimes he sends me pictures of the stuff he makes. Oh, oh and he makes little puppets sometimes, they're adorable! No idea how he does it but it's amazing. He's also super near sighted and doesn't see shit without his glasses, but he never puts them on because he's embarrassed. That's so cute right?"

Ink then continued to go on a rant about this Glitch guy, that probably could've rivaled Cross' rants about Nightmare. Needless to say it was pretty impressive how much he liked him. Killer was hoping that the two could meet up one day.

After Ink had calmed down, Dust had tried to get Nightmare and Cross to talk about _their_ crushes, but Cross had simply declined saying "I'm pretty sure everyone knows, right Nighty?" "Yeah, kinda. Same thing for me." Which had then caused even more confusion for Killer.

If they already fucking _knew_ then why weren't they together yet? Or was that just their clever way of getting out of talking about it and neither of them actually knew, they were just helping the other?  
This was too much how did Dream put up with them?

Dream didn't have people he liked, everyone knew about Dust and when Killer pretended to not have anyone he liked either, Dust was merciful enough to play along.

"Okay so what do we do now?", Dream asked. "Oh brother...did you already forget?" "Oh shit. Right." Dust jumped up and grabbed an empty soda bottle.

"Prepared yourself for the game of games Ink. Spin the bottle." "Okay. How does it work?" Killer smirked. "You spin the bottle, and you have to kiss whoever it lands on."

"... _what_." "You heard me, and no I'm not joking." Ink looked at the bottle with shock, but it then turned into curiosity. He was really up for anything, wasn't he?

Dream seemed to suddenly remember something. "Can we make one quick rule?" "Depends on what it is." Killer wondered what that rule could be. It was spin the bottle, it really wasn't too complicated. "If Nightmare and I land on each other we have to kiss Cross. Because I'm _not_ kissing my brother." "Yeah me neither."

Dust snickered. "Yeah we didn't think of that, that'd be weird. But why not just spin again? Or kiss the person next to the one it landed on?" "No no we're going with Cross."

"Okay okay can we start now? Ink should start!" Killer shoved the bottle into Ink's hands. He put it on the ground and spun it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This took...weirdly long for me to write?
> 
> Haha yeah Nightmare and Cross murdered who you probably think they murdered. Dream and his arson were also involved.


	14. Dumb teens kiss because a bottle tells them to - Also Lust makes new friends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The sleepover squad plays spin the bottle and Ink has his first kiss(es)
> 
> Crossmare continue to be infuriating, but hey, Killer and Dream bond over milk bread.  
> And Lust makes some new friends too!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Featuring Ink genuinely analyzing kisses and being amazed by the concept. Purely because that was literally my reaction to first realizing that different people kiss differently.
> 
> ALSO- for anyone who might no get vine references. At some point someone makes a joke about Killer having a knife kink, and then he's like, don't kink shame me- kink shaming is my kink. That wasn't some weird sexual thing they're all still children okay. It's a vine.

The bottle slowly came to a stop, pointing at Dream. This was actually the least awkward outcome, nice. Ink turned towards his friend.

"Uh so, I've actually never done this before so..." "Wait, do you mean kiss? You sure you want your first kiss to be a spin the bottle kiss?" Ink tilted his head, he was a bit confused. "Sure why not?"

Was a first kiss a big deal? Ink had never thought of it that way. As long as it wasn't a person you really liked it was _just_ a kiss right? And he'd rather have Dream kiss him than some weirdo.

He was weirdly self conscious now. Could you fuck up a kiss? Would that be embarrassing? Well, Ink probably wouldn't get embarrassed, but could it technically be?

Dream chuckled, probably because Ink was lost in thought again, before leaning in. It lasted only a second or two, and when Dream pulled back smiling, Ink couldn't help but giggle. "Ooh so that's what it's like, neat." He didn't really know how else to describe it. The kiss was nothing super mind blowing, but it was nice. It was soft and gentle, and had felt safe.

"Okay okay my turn. Next I'm kissing..." Dream carefully spun the bottle, it only made three rotations. It landed on Nightmare. "...Cross!"

Both of them giggled, something told Ink that this wasn't the first time this had happened. Cross wiggled out of the tentacles enveloping him while Dream awkward leaned over Ink's lap. They met for a short kiss, and then the tentacles were pulling Cross back again.

Wether that was because Nightmare secretly really wanted to cuddle, or because he got jealous, was a mystery Ink had no intention of solving.

"So who spins now? Nightmare or Cross?", Killer asked. "Nighty can go." The goopy skeleton used a tentacle to spin the bottle, he was rather forceful while doing so, so the bottle ended up bumping against Dust's knee.

Conveniently, they were sitting next to each other. Dust grinned and leaned closer. "No homo though right?" Nightmare groaned, before pressing a quick kiss to the other's teeth. "Never say that phrase around me again, I feel personally offended by it."

Dust spun and got Ink, he was a little more confident this time. The taller had quickly crawled up to him, and kissed him. Ink hadn't even fully processed that and Dust had already pulled away. It hadn't felt like Dream's kiss at all, but weren't they basically the same?

This time, it felt different. Still nice, but different. Dream's kiss had been very...soft and calm, whereas Dust's had been almost...exiting? Despite the fact both of them had just been quick kisses. Weird.  
Were kisses some secret art? Ink found it oddly interesting.

Why was this fun?

Ink spun the bottle yet again, and it landed on Killer, who smiled at him reassuringly. This time Ink was literally blown away. Killer's kiss was also different? And not at all what he expected too!

He had expected Killer's to be similar to Dust, but instead, Killer's felt super relaxed and casual. Like it was just a fist bump. Ink probably felt the most at ease kissing Killer because of that.

As Killer spun the bottle he twisted his whole arm, making it spin with way too much force, just like Nightmare had. It bumped into Cross, and Killer suddenly looked very nervous. Dust snickered in the background as Killer gulped and then shuffled over to Cross. Was he blushing?

Wait. Blushing. Didn't people blush because of embarrassment? Why would Killer be embarrassed? He didn't blush when kissing Ink either.

...  
Killer was a weird one for sure.

He watched as Cross and Killer shared a quick kiss, the latter looking...Ink couldn't really read people, so he had no idea what the emotion was, but he sure looked like he was feeling _something_.

Cross spun the bottle next, and the inevitable happened. It landed on Nightmare.

Dust's face lit up and Ink was about to make a teasing remark, but Cross simply shrugged, tilted his head up and immediately met Nightmare in a kiss. And oh this one was very different from the others that Ink had witnessed today.

Instead of a funny dumb teen thing, this one seemed very affectionate. It lasted longer too, way longer, about ten seconds maybe? And when they pulled apart they did it slowly, and their faces stayed close together, and they smiled at each other in this weird sweet way? Ink was beyond confused what the fuck.

Killer looked at Dream with an expression that even Ink could read, it said "are you shitting me right now- how have they not confessed their undying love for each other yet what is this fuckery?" and honestly, Ink could agree with that.

Dream just shook his head. "This is literally the third time I've seen this. I'm tired." He then coughed into his hand loudly, which snapped the not-boyfriends back into reality after they had been so distracted. Distracted by what? Ink had no clue, each other maybe.

Nightmare spun the bottle, and it landed on Ink. Huh, Ink was kissing a lot of people today.

In the end, they had spent a lot of time on spin the bottle considering the game literally consisted of giving each other kisses. Ink had somehow kissed everyone at least twice.

It was fun though. Nightmare and Cross also kissed a specific way. Nightmare's kiss had that very-confident-definitely-knows-what-he's-doing vibe, even though he probably didn't, he just gave that impression. Cross' had been very sweet, a feel good kiss, it made Ink smile.

That made Ink wonder. Would he ever get to kiss Glitch? What would that feel like? Even if the two _did_ meet eventually, he surely wouldn't like him back. And then, even if he _did_ like him back they probably wouldn't kiss. Glitch had told Ink about his extreme haphephobia, and he would never want to make him uncomfortable. So it was just a wishful fantasy, really.

When Killer had gotten Dust at some point, the two had very dramatically held each other, and then kissed. After that, they whispered bro at each other until Nightmare threw a pillow at them. It shouldn't have been that funny.

And when Killer and Dream had to kiss, one of them, Ink couldn't tell who, had moved to fast, resulting in their foreheads bumping together. It looked painful, and both of them dramatically flopped to the floor and claimed to be dying.

After they stopped playing, they talked about stuff while eating their snacks. Literally just stuff. Their teachers, tv shows, anything that came to mind.

Nightmare was the first to fall asleep. They hadn't even noticed until they asked him a question and he didn't respond. He was still sitting, resting his head on Cross' shoulder.

Next was Dust, then Killer, then Dream and eventually Cross. Ink hugged his pillow and stared up at the ceiling. He smiled. For the first time ever he had made some nice friends in real life.

———

Lust was panicking.

It was Saturday, his own personal deadline to ask Horror on a date was about to end. Why did he do that? What was the reason?

He was stressed, so he did what he always did when he was stressed. Walk around aimlessly.

The part of the school building he was in right now was for all the extracurricular activities. He was pretty sure that students were actually aloud to use the rooms even on weekends as long as they were part of the corresponding clubs. Lust hadn't joined any though, and he wasn't planning to.

He suddenly bumped into another person. "Shit- I'm sorry."

They were a skeleton too, they had yellow eye light, wore something similar to a crown on their head and held a paper bag in their arms.

"Oh don't worry about it, are you okay?" He, (at least judging by the voice this was a he) smiled at Lust reassuringly. It was only then that he noticed someone was standing next to the stranger. Wait, he knew this guy. Killer!

"Oh, hey Lust." The cheery skeleton turned to Killer. "You two know each other?" "Yep! Dream, this is Lust, he's in our homeroom. Lust, this is Dream, Nightmare's way nicer twin."

"It's nice to meet you Lust!" Dream beamed at him, and Lust immediately knew that he liked this guy. "Likewise. But also _the_ Nightmare?" "Yep. Though I imagine that's kinda hard to believe, right?" "Heh, yeah."

"Hey Lust. You look kinda stressed, everything alright?", Killer asked. "Honestly? I _am_ a bit stressed, it's fine though." Dream looked at him and frowned, then his face lit up as if he had an idea. He opened the paper bag to reveal soft looking bread, it smelled good too. He took one and held it out for Lust.

"Here you can have one! Killer and I just made some milk bread, they're pretty good." "I...thank you." Lust took a bite. He didn't know what he was expecting, but this was definitely better. It was so...soft. It immediately melted in his mouth and tasted milky and sweet. "Pretty good? This is amazing!"

Killer puffed out his chest, clearly proud. "I'm great at baking yeah." "Hey, I helped!" "And Dream is a great assistant."

"Wanna sit down with us? We were gonna gossip about our friends and eat the bread." Killer's offer was very tempting, it would definitely take his mind of things. "Sure, if I'm not a bother." Dream squealed. "Yay! New friend!"

The three of them sat under the "ugly ass tree" as Geno and Error had so lovingly dubbed it and it truly did help Lust relax.

"Wait, you're serious? They aren't together?" "No they aren't and it's painful to watch them." "Yesterday they literally kissed and lovingly stared into each other's eyes." Killer took a particularly angry bite out of his bread. "Right?! That look was just so...so EuGH! I legit thought they were gonna make out."

"Wouldn't put it past them to be honest.", Dream mumbled. Lust laughed, that was just sad. Dream wasn't finished though. "Those two aren't they only one's that are painful to watch though, don't be hypocritical Killer."

"What do you mean?" "I mean your horribly one sided crush on Cross. He literally only has eyes for my brother and it makes me pity you, a lot. Like, it actually hurts." Lust laughed even more, Killer just stared at the other in disbelief. "Dream how come you're all nice and cheery but then the second you see an opportunity to hurt someone's feelings you go for it?" "I _did_ grow up with Nightmare. Besides, I only do it with people like you or Cross, I know you can take it."

Lust nudged Killer. "Cross huh? Didn't he threaten you with a knife?" "Yeah and that was h-" Dream immediately interrupted him. "Don't finish that sentence. _Please_."

"Gee, I should've known you'd have a knife kink. You _did_ introduce yourself saying you liked knifes." Killer stared at him for a few seconds, he blushed, clearly a bit embarrassed. But then he got over it and chuckled. "Stop kink shaming me!" "Kink shaming is my kink!" All three of them broke into giggles.

Lust saved two of the milk breads and put them into the paper bag that Dream had kindly given to him. They were for Horror.  
He was still nervous, but he was feeling a lot better now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanna eat milk bread :c
> 
> Also unimportant but Dream's in the cooking club, so he was aloud to use the kitchen with Killer, who isn't in the club.


	15. Reaper is a respectful asshole - also Bloodlust is happening

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Reaper is officially Error‘s best friend now and Horror identifies people by giving them food names.  
> Oh also Bloodlust may or may not have a cute moment

"Soooo Error. What cha doing?" "None of your business buddy."

Error was sitting on bis bed, texting his online friend. But Reaper had finished reading whatever he was reading and now he was bored. He hadn't known him for long, but Error had quickly learned that when Reaper was bored, there was no escape.

Reaper wanted something entertaining to happen? He would _make_ something entertaining happen.  
It was usually somewhat amusing, but right now this entertaining something would obviously involve teasing Error, and he really didn't like that.

"So...who are you texting?" Error immediately held his phone closer to his chest. Reaper didn't need to know that. The hooded skeleton smirked. "Naw, you're blushing a little. Is it your boyfriend? Girlfriend?" "He is none of those things!" Right at that moment Error's phone buzzed, he looked down to read the message.

 **Squid:**  
On a completely different note-  
Achievement unlocked, I had my first sleepover yesterday

 **You:**  
Oh that's cool  
How was it?

 **Squid:**  
It was suuuuuuuper fun  
We talked about a lot of dumb things, and we ate wayyy to many snacks and we played never have I ever, turns out I'm awesome at that!!  
Oh and we played spin the bottle!

 **You:**  
does that mean Squidkid had his first kiss ;)

 **Squid:**  
Yesssss! It was nice!!  
Did you know that different people kiss differently? Isn't that cool?!

Error snorted. That was the only thing he had to say about that? How cute.

"Oooh who's this?" "FOR FUCK'S SAKE WHERE'D YOU COME FROM?!" Reaper was suddenly sitting next to him on his bed and glancing at his phone screen. He was uncomfortably close. "Chill out man. Now answer my question, who is this?"

Error knew he was blushing, Reaper's sly smirk was very telling. "Squid. A _friend_." His smirk only widened. "Riiiiiight. You should probably text him back Error. Wouldn't want to leave your _friend_ on read, right?"  
 _Reaper was on thin fucking ic_ e.

 **You:**  
I didn't, but it makes sense I guess

 **Squid:**  
Okay but like  
Have you had your first kiss?

 **You:**  
Why would I kiss anyone? I can't even shake someone's hand without being close to a break down

 **Squid:**  
Right  
Sorry  
Stupid question  
Im stupid

 **You:**  
...I have actually  
You're not stupid

"Ooooh Tea! Spill, who was it? Who did you kiss?" "Reaper I swear to the god I don't believe in I will strangle you with a pillow if you don't back up." Reaper had the habit of getting really close to people in order to invade their personal space and annoy them even more than he usually would. He _was_ careful not to touch Error, and he appreciated that, but sometimes he still got a little too close and Error panicked.

Thankfully, Reaper did back up. He even scooted away a bit. Well, at least he listened.

 **Squid:**  
Wait really?!  
Who was it?! When was it?!  
What was it like???

 **You:**  
Absolutely horrible and entirely non consensual.  
One of my top three worst moments in my whole entire life

 **Squid:**  
...  
I am _so_ sorry

 **You:**  
It's all good. My creepy cousin punched her afterwards  
I never saw her again actually  
Now that I think about it he probably did a lot more than just punch her, just not in front of me

"...Error buddy do I have to kill a bitch?" "No seriously, Fresh took care of her. She can't have a worse fate than that." Reaper leaned forward again, presumably to get a better view of the screen. But then, to Error's surprise, he stopped himself and scooted even farther away instead.

Error looked at his friend questioningly, the other bush shook his head. "I was making you uncomfy wasn't I? Hah yeah, sorry about that. It's a habit, I'm working on it." Forget about Reaper being on thin ice, he was Error's _best friend_ now and would be forgiven anything. The bar was low yes, but people respecting boundaries was for some reason not always a given. "...it's fine. Thanks."

 **Squid:**  
Wait shit  
My friend wants help with his homework lol  
Baiiii!!!

 **You:**  
Bye

Error slowly put his phone down and looked at Reaper. The other was leaning against the wall, seeming very relaxed and looking right back at him. "You know, considering you're such an asshole, you're pretty cool Reaper." He chuckled. "Yeah, I'm pretty great."

They sat there in a somewhat awkward silence for a another minute or two, before Error finally spoke up. "I wanna try something." "Sure, what?"

He took a deep breath. "A fist bump." Reaper immediately sat up to properly face him. He looked shocked. "That requires you to touch me Error." "Well duh, I know that."

Reaper looked very confused, Error didn't blame him. "Okay so, you know how I trust Geno? A lot? Sometimes, on really good days, he shakes my hand. And it feels...it still feels a bit icky but it's not half as bad as normal people? It's kinda okay, and reassuring." Reaper nodded, he still didn't seem to be following.

"You're an asshole, but you're also cool. I like you. So I wanna try touching you. No hand shakes though I would literally die. So...fist bump." "...sure as long as you're fine with it."

Error closed his hand into a fist, Reaper did the same. It was kind of a pathetic fist bump. Really slow and careful, and little glitches shot through Error's arm as soon as they touched, his arm even jerked to the side a little. But they did it, Error touched him. He was pretty content with himself.

He stared at his hand for a few more seconds, he couldn't help but smile a little. "Geno will be super happy to hear that I touched someone other than him. And he will be super pissed that it's you. This is great."

Reaper was pretty awesome.  
"Okay so nooooow...Tell me all about this squid guy."  
Sometimes, Reaper was pretty awesome _sometimes_.

———

"Hey Horror! I brought you something!"

Horror immediately perked up. He had been dissecting a random rubber ducky, but now Lust was back! And he had something that smelled good.

"It's milk bread, it's super tasty. I made some new friends and they gave me some." He opened the paper back Lust gave him and practically started drooling. "I can eat these?" "Yep, go ahead."

Horror happily munched away at the two treats. They really did taste good. "Where'd...they get these?" "Oh, they made them themselves." "Hm..."

"...was it Liquorice?" Horror had finally found a way to easily identify all his classmates. Food names. Lust had quickly caught on who was who. Well, it wasn’t that hard, food was assigned by looks. Lust was bubblegum, but Horror had no problem remembering _his_ name. "Killer, yeah. Him and Dream. How'd you know?"

Killer, his name was Killer. Horror tried to smush that into his nonexistent brain, he‘d probably forget after a few minutes. Liquorice was easier to remember, it matched his face.

Food names were so convenient. Like the rainbow skeleton in one of his classes which he called Skittles, or that one skeleton he ate lunch with, Nerds or the tiny blue one that had joined them twice, Blueberry. Wait, wasn’t Blueberry his actual name? Horror wasn‘t sure anymore. He vaguely remembered snickering over the fact that the name he chose for him was his actual name. But maybe he was just making up memories that never happened? He had done that before.

Horror sure was a weirdo, making up that stuff that didn’t happen. Except maybe it did happen. And now he was hungry. How much had he eaten today? He had just eaten the milk bread of course. Oh yeah that milk bread had been nice.

...

Where was he?  
Oh, right, Lust had asked him a question.

"He looks like he can bake." It had taken ages for him to respond. "How does someone look like they can bake?" He clawed at the hole in his skull, searching for the right words. He couldn't find them. "...he just...does..."

Horror did that a lot. He always took so long to think of the right words and half of the time he didn't find them, that or he got distracted entirely. People always got annoyed that he took so long to answer, Lust didn't mind though. Lust was great. "I mean...that makes sense in a weird way."

"...who's Dream actually?" "Oh, I don't think you know him. He's Nightmare's twin." Horror blinked, very hard. He knew which one Nightmare was! "Octopus?" "Yeah!"

"...didn’t know he had a twin." "Oh, you probably don’t remember but Cross mentioned it." "Oreo?" "Yes that one."

"Octopus, Oreo and Skittles always talk to a small happy skeleton. He looks yellow-y. That him?" "Oh yeah, that’s...I‘m pretty sure you’re talking about Dream." "That’s muffin." The shorter skeleton giggled. "Muffin...that does suit him."

Lust sat down on the floor next to him. "I get how Cross is an Oreo, but why did you go with Oreo specifically? I mean, you could’ve gone with cow or like, beef right? The colors add up." It seemed like he just wanted to somehow start a conversation, but then again Horror didn’t know for sure. "...no. He definitely is something sweet. So Oreo." "He threatened Killer with a giant knife on our first day." " _Oreo_." Lust chuckled. "Okay okay."

Horror felt the other lean against him, he stiffened up at first, but slowly relaxed. Lust really liked being close to him for some reason. "I uhm...kinda wanted to ask you something else too." "Go ahead."

He was nervous again. Lust was cute when he was nervous, but Horror still didn’t like it when he was. He didn’t want Lust to be nervous around him, it made him feel like the other was scared of him.

"Would you...would you like, go on a date with me?" Horror froze up. Did he hear that right? He looked down at his friend, who was blushing brightly. Okay, oh no, oh yes? He _did_ hear that right.

Did Lust like him? _Like_ like him? But Lust was so pretty and nice and perfect why would he like Horror? Horror really liked Lust, a lot. He could think about Lust and how great he was all day.

"...Horror...?" He hadn’t really realized how long he had been staring. But Lust was blushing a lot less now, and Horror suddenly had an iron grip on the inside of his eye socket, it legitimately hurt. How long had he been lost?

"I...you...You’re serious? This isn’t a joke?" "Horror, sweetie, I‘d never joke about this." Horror tried to look anywhere but at Lust, he was flustered. "I...sure. Yes. Yeah, I wanna."

Lust‘s smile widened. "Oh really? I‘m glad. Sheeeesh I panicked about this so badly." "Well, where d‘you wanna, you know, go?" "No idea sweetie, I honestly didn’t think I‘d make it this far."

Horror smiled. That’s what Lust did, make him smile. "We can search for something together? If...if you want." "Yeah, yeah I‘d like that."

Bubblegum was cute.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Horror has food names for all the characters lol
> 
> Also Ink‘s name on most social media is definitely squidkid


	16. Cross has a bad time - Geno hangs out with a bunch of dumbasses

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Cross has a break down, Nightmare‘s there to make him feel better.
> 
> On a completely different note, Geno hangs out with a bunch of people and they seemingly have like two braincells all together. Geno is hogging both of them.
> 
> Until he tosses them away and they probably are gone forever.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi, in this chapter I give Cross a quite frankly unnecessary amount of pain.
> 
> Warning for implied abuse and (not really human, but other sentient being) experimentation I guess? Nothing too bad or explicit but hey better safe than sorry
> 
> The second part of this chapter has no negativity whatsoever though

"Nighty just give it back!" "Nope."

Nightmare held the chocolate in one of his tentacles, far above Cross' head. The latter was desperately trying to reach it, and was even attempting to climb his friend. (It didn't really work out)

"Cross, you know I love you, but I can't let you eat even more." Cross had now finally accepted the fact that he wasn't getting the chocolate anytime soon, and settled on glaring at Nightmare instead. It was kind of cute, in a weird way, but Nightmare would never say that out loud. And he had other things to worry about right now.

"Why nooooooot?" Cross whined and looked at him with pleading eyes. It was hard to resist that, really. "You already eat way more chocolate than any healthy person usually should, but this? This is too much even for you! It's like, ten and you've already had fourteen whole ass chocolate bars. _Fourteen_. And not even the little ones!"

His friend groaned, clearly frustrated. "Why are you eating this much anyways? Did something happen?" Nightmare was a little concerned, Cross had a habit of stress eating. As soon as he got upset but felt like talking about it would bother others, he started shoving loads of chocolate into him as a distraction. He still looked miserable while eating them though, and Nightmare _hated_ having to watch that.

"...it's nothing." "It's nothing my ass Cross, just tell me what's wrong."

Cross stayed silent, Nightmare sighed. He was being stubborn, but that wasn't a problem. Nightmare was willing to wait. He would wait until Cross opened up and then do his best to fix the problem. He always did.

A tentacle pulled out a box from under their bed, it was filled to the brim with chocolate. He put the chocolate bar he had taken from Cross into the box and shoved it back where it came from. Nightmare knew that this one was only one of three, it was a little concerning.

"You have so much chocolate. Can't believe that _that's_ what you decide to spend all of your old man's money on." Cross flinched a little, Nightmare froze. Oh, so _that_ was why he was upset. Honestly, should've been one of Nightmare's first guesses.

"You're upset because of your dad again." "Don't talk about him. _Please_." There it was. Cross looked down at his feet, his shoulders slumped, his eye lights as small as pinpricks. He was ashamed, ashamed of showing what he considered weakness. Nightmare frowned, this always happened.

For a while they just stood there, neither knowing what to say. "...did you have a bad dream?" Cross nodded hesitantly. This was shitty. Nightmare hated that this wasn't the first time, he hated that this definitely wasn't the last.

"How bad?" "The I wake up crying and have a panic attack kinda bad." He narrowed his eye at his friend. "And you didn't wake me because? You know I would've like, helped you right?" Cross took a deep breath.

"I know. You always do. You always comfort me, you comfort me because I'm such a fucking mess. I felt like, like I shouldn't always bother you. I should make it myself, I'm not a little kid anymore...I'm kinda pathetic." Nightmare was officially pissed now. Cross was his favorite person in the world and no one was allowed to say something like that about him, not even Cross himself.

But he tried to conceal his anger as best as he could, making Cross feel better was his number one priority right now after all. He grabbed Cross' wrist with a tentacle, and forced him to sit down on his bed with him.

"I won't force you to talk about it, but usually that helps doesn't it?" He tried to keep his voice soft, for his standards at least and Cross smiled the tiniest bit. That meant he at least appreciated the effort, so that was nice. "It's...you know." "I don't actually." "The dream, it was...the usual."

Nightmare got a little more comfortable on the bed and placed a pillow in Cross' lap. It would be used later on. "The usual huh. So basically just a jumble of memories?" "Yeah."

His tentacles wrapped themselves around Cross like they always did, he waited patiently for a minute, then a second one, and then a third, and then Cross finally spoke. "It's always the same. He's there, and he yells at us. At me. And then he tells me that I'm worthless, and just a tool. And then there's the experiments, he does so many, on all of us. But Chara and I have it the worst. I'm scared, I'm always so scared."

Nightmare didn't dare to speak a single word, but he wrapped his tentacles around Cross a little tighter. "And then it happens. He takes their souls, but he does it wrong. And then Paps dies, and Frisk dies. They die because he fucked up. I couldn't protect them, I _really_ tried but I couldn't. And he just doesn't care, it was just a failed experiment, he has more test subjects. He does it again, he does it on us and he gets it right. It hurts, it hurts so much Nightmare. Chara is hurt too, he screams so loud that I literally can't hear anything else. And then he dies, but he's not _dead_ because _I'm_ alive and- and then..."

Cross clutched the pillow to his chest as if his life depended on it. "...you're there. Dream's there. You want to save me. But I'm scared and then I stab Dream. And he's _hurt_ because of _me_. And then he takes you and ties you down and you- he- he takes the-" Tears started rolling down Cross' face and Nightmare wordlessly wiped them away.

"And you _scream_. You're in so much pain. You throw up and your back fucking cracks open and the sound it makes is just- just-" He shoved his face into the pillow for a few seconds and just screamed. "And then you loose control, and Dream and I only barely calm you down. So _he_ gets scared of you and tries to- to-" Cross couldn't say it, but that was fine, he didn't have to. Nightmare remembered all too well, he interrupted him. "But he failed."

"He failed and we got rid of him. For good. Then Dream burned the whole place down so you'd never have to see anything in there ever again, didn't he?" He gently cupped Cross' cheekbone to make the other look at him. "He can never do anything like that ever again, you're safe now. We're all safe now."

"But that doesn't change what he already did. Frisk, Paps, Chara, I couldn't protect them. And you and Dream got hurt because of me. It's all my fault." "It's not." Nightmare made sure that his tone left no room for argument.

"You were a child, for fucks sake we still are. You shouldn't feel responsible for any of the shit he did. _He_ was a horrible person, _you're_ a victim." Cross smiled at him weakly, and Nightmare knew that he had gotten through to him. Thank god.

"Chara says thanks." "Heh, you’re welcome brat." A comfortable silence overcame the two and Nightmare felt weirdly content.

"You wanna watch bad horror movies and make fun of them?" "You always know how to make me feel better Nighty."

———

Geno wasn‘t exactly sure what the fuck was going on here, but he definitely wasn’t a fan.

Error had wanted to hang out, and because Error was an asshole he had obviously insisted on bringing Reaper along. So Geno had asked Sci to join them, and Sci had then asked if Fell could also join, and of course he could. But then Blue had realized that his roommate was hanging out with them and had asked to join too, and everyone was okay with that because everyone liked Blue. (Even Fell, he just didn’t admit that.) _But then_ Blue had remembered that he was going to hang out with Dust today, and so he asked if he could bring him and then Dust asked if he could bring Killer, and then Killer asked if could bring his friend Dream.

Error then had the audacity not to show up after realizing how many people were coming. He would pay for this.

Long story short, there were a lot of skeletons here, some of which didn’t know each other. Which would be _fine_ if Reaper, Killer and Dust weren’t a _horrible_ combination, that would surely be giving Geno headaches in the future.

Currently, Killer was sitting on Dust‘s shoulders, who was _standing_ on Reaper‘s shoulders and they got Sci and Fell to measure how tall they were together. It looked _really_ fucking dangerous, and Geno hated that he was genuinely concerned that Killer would fall down, break his neck and turn to dust right there.

He was sitting on the grass with Dream and Blue, both of which didn’t seem to be concerned at all. Dream even muttered something about "brother" and "Criss-cross" having done way worse and Geno was very very concerned for those two whoever they were.

"Dream you should‘ve totally brought Ink! Oh and Nightmare and Cross!" Blue said, excitedly. Dream chuckled. "I would’ve, but Ink ran off earlier and I have no idea where he went. And brother and Cross are in their dorm watching movies together. They were all cuddled up when I came in too."

"Like a date?" "I wish." "What do you mean you wish?", Geno asked this without taking his eyes off the three idiots for even a second. "Oh, my brother and Cross have been pining for each other for five years. Long story, it’s very tiring."

"Oh that sou-" He didn’t finish his sentence, instead jumping to his feet and using blue magic on Killer, who had fallen down just as he had predicted.

He only barely caught the other skeleton, and set him down on the ground gently. Everyone was silent for a few seconds, then Killer suddenly jumped up and yelled. "HAH! That was fucking awesome I thought I was gonna snap my neck! Thanks Geno!"

" _What do you mean fucking awesome?!_ Killer are you suicidal or just dumb?" Geno could not believe this. "I‘m a fucking idiot! Head empty no thoughts!" Dust threw his hands up in the air. "Fuck yeah Kills! No thoughts, we‘re stupid!"

Unfortunately, Dust moved his arms with so much force that he too, fell backwards. This time it was Fell who caught him, with his arms though, no magic involved. "Both of you are braindead." He hissed, before dropping Dust on his ass harshly. "Duh, we just said that."

Reaper laughed, everyone turned to him. "Pfffft, he _fell_ right into your arms." That was it. Geno was done. "Reaper you have ten seconds to run. I _will_ turn you into dust."

Reaper looked at him with amusement, he obviously thought he was joking. Oh well, that made it easier. Geno took his bag, walked over to Reaper, and swung it at his head as hard as he could. The other screeched, laughed and then chucked someone else‘s bag (was that Fell's?) at Geno.

This meant war.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> No don’t worry, this isn’t the only time Cross' (and the twins') backstory is mentioned


	17. Horror and Lust continue to be cute - Reaper and Dream make a discovery

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Horror and Lust go on their date and continue to be adorable (and single handedly make up for the mess that is Crossmare in this book)
> 
> Also Dream and Reaper find realize something about their friends.
> 
> On a completely unrelated note, Cross is still feeling shitty :|

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> In which Dream‘s now involved in both of his best friends' love lives for some reason despite not knowing shit about relationships and crushes for he has never had a crush before??

Lust just couldn't stop smiling.

Horror wasn't a fan of crowded places, and there wasn't a lot you could do on a sunday anyways, so they decided to just go to a nearby park and call it a date. And it actually was really nice.

Lust, feeling very bold today, had immediately grabbed Horror's hand. Then, in typical Lust fashion he had immediately internally freaked out. Horror however had just squeezed his hand and let out a happy sigh.

So here they were, slowly walking hand in hand. Birds were singing, flowers were blooming and Lust was going to melt. Just then, a tiny blue bird flew past them and Horror, totally mesmerized, stared after it until it disappeared from their sight completely. His eye had lit up in awe and the smile on his face had widened.

How could such a "scary" looking guy be this adorable? Horror could chop his hand off and eat it for breakfast and still look cute doing so.

They came across a pond with some ducks in it. Lust squealed. "Look Horror! They're so cute!" "They taste good too." It was usually hard to tell with Horror, but Lust was pretty sure that it was a joke this time. "Don't worry...just kidding." Hah, he was getting so good at this.

"Wanna feed them? We're aloud to feed them right?" He didn't wait for an answer and was already excitedly dragging Horror towards the pond. Fortunately, there was no sign forbidding them from feeding the ducks.

He came to a stop when they were only a few steps away from the water. "Do you have bread or anything? Should we get some?" To his surprise, Horror frowned and shook his head. "Don't give em bread. Not good for ducks...or the water."

"...really?" "Yeah...you can give them grapes. Oh and bird seed...or lettuce, or sweetcorn." Horror sure was interesting. There were a lot of things he just didn't understand until you explained them to him four times, and then there were a lot of things he just couldn't remember no matter how hard he tried. But for some reason he knew and remembered stuff that other people payed no mind to.

Horror reached into the pockets of his shorts, and pulled out a little plastic bag with...rice in it? "...we can give them this. That's good." "That's great and all, and I'm very impressed. But also why do you carry uncooked rice with you?" The taller looked at him, clearly a bit confused. "...in case I get hungry?"

Lust chuckled, he didn't always understand Horror, but that was fine.

They spend some time feeding the ducks and sat down on a bench near the pond afterwards. Horror took some more time talking about what kind of food you could feed which animals, though he did take some time remembering some of the animals' actual names. Lust was starting to think that maybe Horror had some kind of hyperfixation on knowing all about food.

He himself recalled that one time a swan attacked him, as this pond reminded him of it.

"...it just...attacked you?" "Yeah! Not really sure why, maybe it got territorial? I mean, I did _something_ to piss it off. This grown swan was chasing eight year old me through the park and constantly hitting me with its beak. I cried." Horror giggled, he giggled and giggled and then he _snorted_. It was adorable.

"Hey not funny I was scared!" Lust playfully hit the other's shoulder, but he himself couldn't stop giggling either.

They both needed some more time to calm down, but after they finally did, a comfortable silence settled between them. Lust, ever so daring today, shuffled a little closer to Horror. Their sides were pressed up against each other now and he allowed himself to lean into the taller skeletons chest.

For a few seconds, Horror seemed completely at a loss for what to do. But then he slowly, almost hesitantly, put his arm around Lust. It felt weirdly warm and safe, he didn't want to move away, ever.

"I like you a lot Horror. You're...super cute. And nice, and lovable, and very smart in your own way.", Lust half mumbled. "I'm just really _really_ fond of you, you know?"

Horror's didn't respond for a while, but that was okay. He probably took a bit to process what Lust just said, and then he had to find the right words to form a proper response. Knowing this only eased Lust's anxiety the tiniest bit.

"I really like you too. I can't describe it...you just make me very happy." Was what he finally said. Lust couldn't stop the grin on his face.

"How about, you know, you date me? Like actually date-date me?" Horror looked down at him and blinked, seemingly a bit taken aback. "As in...boyfriends?" "Yeah!"

The taller skeleton turned into a blushing mess, but his smile was wider than ever. He nodded. "I'd like that."

Lust smiled, and kissed the other's cheek. Horror blushed even brighter and simply gaped at him. He giggled, and decided to lean into his chest again. His boyfriend was absolutely adorable.

———

Dream was eating lunch at their usual table. Killer was currently poking Nightmare, who looked like he was about to commit murder, with a fork. Cross wasn't here today, something about him feeling like shit and wanting to stay in bed. That meant no one was here to save Killer from Nightmare, but he didn't seem to realize that.

Oh well, Killer would (probably) live, his brother seemed to be rather fond of their new friends.

Dream turned to Ink, only to realize that his friend was covering his mouth and blushing furiously. He was looking at something on his phone, and seemed to be getting more and more flustered every second. "You okay there Ink?"

Ink frantically shook his head. "Look at this bullshit!" He practically shoved his phone into Dream's face.

 **Glitchy:**  
Heyyyyyy Squid ;)  
Hoooowwwww r u dooooing

 **You:**  
Glitch wtf  
You okay?

 **Glitchy:**  
More than okay now that I'm talking to you ;)))

 **You:**  
I- what?  
okidoki??

 **Glitchy:**  
Ur soooo segsyyy  
I'd totally make out with you

 **You:**  
You've never seen me?  
Glitch are you like drunk?? High???

 **Glitchy:**  
We've called so liiiiike  
Your _voice_ is segsyyy

 **You:**  
...  
Who _are_ you??

 **Glitchy:**  
Your future husband <3

Dream almost dropped the phone. He snorted, but then immediately tried to suppress his laughter. That didn't exactly work out though, and Ink was _still_ freaking out.

"What do I do? What's happening? That's not Glitch! Did someone steal his phone? Did he get hacked? Or kidnapped?! Or is he just like, intoxicated. But we're both underage! Unless he lies about his age...no he wouldn't do that! What if-" "Ink calm down!"

Dream was about to try and calm down Ink, when his phone suddenly rung. They both looked at each other, then at the screen and then Ink jumped up and ran away. "Ink wait-" "YOU ANSWER!" And he was gone. Dust and Blue looked after him in confusion, and even Killer and Nightmare had stopped their antics to send Dream a questioning look. He just shrugged.

Dream looked at the phone for a few seconds before sighing and answering the call.

"Hey just so you know this is his friend, he freaked out and gave me his phone." He could hear a deep voice chuckle at the other end of the line. "Oh shit didn't mean to go that far. Haha funny story I'm not Glitch either I'm his friend, thought I'd fuck around a bit." "Yeah, I figured."

Then, suddenly he heard another voice. "Dude what the fuck give me back my phone! Squid probably hates me now!" Weird, both of those voices sounded oddly familiar.

"No worries Error, his friend will tell him that it wasn't you." "You just said my name you dumb bitch!" "Oh shit." Yeah, oh. That made a lot of sense actually.

Dream heard a high pitched sound, it reminded him of a broken computer. He slowly stood up, his eyes searching for a certain group of people at the other side of the cafeteria. He found them.

"Reaper." "Okay dude I fucked up and my buddy's kind of having a breakdown right now but it'd be real cool if you didn't tell Squid abou- wait what." There, at that far table, the taller skeleton looked up and they made eye contact. He blinked, he blinked a second time and then Reaper started wheezing.

Meanwhile Error was standing completely still while the glitches around him became more erratic and a black loading bar was floating above his head. Dream wondered if a, these kind of "break downs" happened often and b, how incredibly uncreative someone could be.

Reaper who had finally calmed down now, spoke to him through the phone again. "So...Ink is...?" "Yeah." "And do we tell them oooorrrrr..." "Nah, let's leave them to figure it out it on their own."

"Okay." "Yeah." This was so horribly awkward.

"Cool."  
"Mhm."

Dream wanted to laugh and cry at the same time.

And as if this hadn't been enough, when Dream went to search for Ink, who yes, still hadn't returned, he found him squatting in front of the door to the bathroom.

"...you okay there Ink?" "Yeah just- just freaking out."

He kneeled down next to his friend and gently pat his back. "Hey there, one of Glitch's friends stole his phone. So everything's okay, the friend is sorry by the way." Ink sighed, obviously relieved. "Okay, great, that's _great_. But uuuuh, Dream you should probably get away because I'm still not calm and there's like a ninety percent chance I'll-" "What are you two doing on the floor?"

Dream looked up and oh god, Error was standing right in front of them, looking utterly confused. "...going to the toilet?"  
 _Riiiight_. They _were_ kinda blocking the way.

"Dream and Ink right? Are you two okay? Want me to get a teacher or something?" Dream was internally screaming what the fuck was he supposed to _say_. "Uuuuhmm..." Ink, who was still blushing in all colors of the rainbow now shot up. "Don't worry! Everything's fine! Just _peachy_! We-"

He didn't get to finish his sentence as Ink's face suddenly had pure horror written across it and he covered his mouth. Before Dream could ask what was wrong, something black and liquid-y had started coming out of Ink's mouth, and then suddenly he was vomiting in front of them.

Okay so today was officially _really_ weird.

All three of them stared at the black puddle on the floor in absolute silence, before Ink suddenly jumped up, wiped his mouth with the back of his hand, yelled "FORGET THIS EVER HAPPENED!", and ran away.

Interestingly enough, the puddle looked and smelled exactly like, well ink. The kind you wrote with. Dream was pretty sure he would've never been able to guess that this had come out of a monster's mouth, had he not witnessed it.  
Well, Ink had mentioned this before, why was he even surprised?

But then Error, who still seemed to be shocked to the point of absolute silence, crouched down and further inspected the puddle. He simply stared at it for a few seconds, and then in the direction Ink had ran off to.

"...Squid...?" Dream honestly didn't know whether to laugh or scream as the other skeleton muttered those words, so he settled for silently going into the bathroom, and getting paper to clean up the mess.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Can't believe that Bloodlust/Horrorlust is the first ship to actually become a thing lol (except for Scifell but they were a l r e a d y dating, they'll get their Moments though)


	18. Glitch meets Squid - Killer and Dust create hell

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> GlitchyMcWindowsMan finds the courage to confront Ink.
> 
> The author gives up on life and let’s Killer and Dust create hell in form of a groupchat

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I feel like I had a mental breakdown while writing this, so that’s how the second part of this mess came to be

Error was rather perplexed.

He didn't know what Squid looked like, he only knew that the other was a skeleton, below average height and male (though that didn't help since he was a skeleton). But that description applied to a lot of people. Like Dream, or Blue or even Error himself! So there had never been a point in time where he thought he might've found the other.

Puking Ink on the other hand, was something _very_ specific. He had never even heard of that before Squid had brought it up once, and what were the chances of him knowing two people who did that? Error was going to assume they were low and call it a fact.

Was Ink Squid? Were they the same person? Had he _actually_ found him like in some romance story?

_Had Reaper actually done something helpful for once?_

"You okay there Error?" He looked up at Dream, who was looking back at him with an expression that Error couldn't quite place. He looked...mildly amused but also absolutely done with everything.

Error slowly stood up, and pretended not to be freaking out internally. "Does Ink have like, online friends?" Dream raised a non existent eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "He does. In fact, I'm pretty sure he has a crush on one of them." The way he said that...oh he definitely _knew_.

"Oh that's, that's cool..." The (now clean) floor was suddenly very interesting to look at. He could feel Dream staring at him though. "So uhh..." "Just tell him. Please."

"What?" "You don't _understand_. I can't have another pair of pining idiots so close to me, I just can't. Tell him I _beg you._ " He was most definitely blushing now, but Dream didn't seem to mind his embarrassment in the least.

The bell rung, and Dream sighed before turning to walk way. "Well, see you later Error. By the way, Ink wants to draw something later so he'll be in our dorm. I won't be there, club activities and all that."

He wanted to ask why the other had told him that, but he quickly stopped himself from doing so. Woah, thanks Dream.

After that, Error couldn't concentrate on anything for the rest of the day. He kept zoning out in class, luckily the only teacher to call him out on it was his math teacher. Since by some miracle the one subject Error was good at was math, he was able to play it off.

Reaper had been acting kinda weird too, him and Dream had probably figured the whole thing out together. At least that's the explanation Error came up with.

And then, despite the fact that Error had been desperately waiting for school to end, when it _did_ Error was suddenly terrified. He was _not_ prepared to do this. He was horrible at social interactions! How was he supposed to do this?

Oh well, Squid, Ink, whatever, his friend sucked just as much. It would be fine.

Right?

He had taken some time to build up the courage to go, and then it had taken him even longer to convince Reaper not to follow him for once. It had been a pain, really. Even though he had tried to avoid telling the truth, Error had to tell Reaper what he was doing in order for the other to leave him be.

But now, here he was, walking along the hallways of the dorm building and reading the different name tags. He had to get extra close since he wasn't wearing his glasses, but he sure as hell wasn't going to put them on. He'd make this work.

To his left, he saw "Nightmare Joku" and "Cross Jakei" Interestingly enough, a name behind Cross was scribbled over to the point of it being indecipherable and Jakei was written on top of it with a different pen. Error would have speculated about that a bit, but then he recognized the Joku surname. It was Dream's too.

That meant Dream's and therefore Ink's dorm couldn't be far right? It wasn't. In fact, it was the opposite dorm. "Dream Joku" and "Ink Comyet". Finally, he had found it.

Error raised his hand to knock on the door, but then stopped himself. He was panicking. He just couldn't do it.

Instead, he pulled out his phone and called Squid's, or well, Ink's number. A few seconds passed, Error was filled with more and more anxiety and dread. _Finally_ the other picked up.

"Oh hey Glitch! What's u-" "Ink Comyet." There was silence for a few seconds, before Ink spoke. This time his voice was laced with slight panic. "What the fuck. How do you- how do you know that?" "Open your door."

He hung up, and waited. Error was _very_ aware of the fact that he sounded like a creepy stalker from a horror movie right now but he couldn't find it in himself to care.

Really, any rational person definitely wouldn't have opened the door and instead called for help, possibly the police. But Ink wasn't a rational person. He opened the door and looked at Error in shock.

"...You're...?" "Yep. The one and only."

And suddenly, Ink squealed and almost jumped at Error, who flinched but tried not to move away. Luckily, Ink seemed to remember who he was talking to in the last second and stopped himself from hugging the other.

"Shit- sorry. I forgot. I'm just- oh my god. Oh my god! This is- aaaaaa come in come in come in!" It was very clear that Ink would be grabbing him and dragging him inside right now if he was anyone else, Error couldn't help but smile. He followed Ink into the dorm.

"This is so amazing! But also awkward! I forgot your name already Glitch!" "It's Error. But you can keep calling me Glitch if you want to." "Really? Okay I'll do that!"

Ink pulled out a chair for him to sit, and then sat down opposite to him. "Aaaaa I totally always wanted to make a good first impression on you when we met. But now the first time we actually talked with each other I puked in front of you! I hate thissssss."

He chuckled. "Hey, hey it's fine. Besides, the literal first impression of me you have is me calling myself a mistake and laughing so hard I almost crash." Ink leaned back in his chair, seemingly struggling to remember that. But then his eyes suddenly lit up. "Yeah, true. I thought it was funny though." "Me almost dying is funny? Man Ink you're cold."

They both laughed a little at that, then they became silent. Neither of them knew what to say, but then they awkwardly smiled at each other at the same time. They laughed again.

"Still, this isn't how I wanted our first meeting to go at all..." Ink mumbled, looking away. "What were you hoping for? Something a little more romantic?" Error only realized that the words had actually come out of his mouth and he hadn't just said it in his head, when Ink stared at him in shock.

"How'd you-" "Dream kinda sorta told me." Shit, he had just made this even more awkward. He blushed, Ink blushed, they both blushed, and they tried to look at anything but each other.

"I'm sorry!" "What are you apologizing for? Liking me?!" Yes!" "Why?!" "I dunno!" "Why are we yelling?!" "I dunno!!"

Error slammed his head onto the table, this was great and horrible at the same time. "Glitch! Are you okay? Are you hurt? Why did you-" "I like you too!" Okay. _Okay_. This could've been worse.

Ink looked at him in shock. "...you do?" "I do."

"So...what do we do now?" "I have no fucking idea, you tell me Inky." "Inky?" "Yeah, if you get to call me a nickname then so do I!" "That's not how it- you know what never mind that's exactly how this works."

———

Cross was feeling better today. His little breakdown two days ago had taken kind of a toll on him, and Nightmare had forbidden him from attending classes yesterday, he was great now though!

He was sitting with their usual group, completely focused on trying to catch the tip of one of Nightmare's tentacles, even though they always twitched away. Killer and Dust was whispering to each other. They were obviously planning something, but Cross wasn't concerned. That was until Killer suddenly jumped up and turned to Ink.

"Hey Ink, you have Error's number right?" "Glitch? Duh." Why had that even been a question? Ink had made it quite clear how happy he was to have finally found "his Glitchy". In fact, he had talked about how the two wanted to hang out today. Cross wasn't sure if it was a date, but he was ninety percent sure that neither of them knew either.

Their relationship was weird, but Cross understood that it was probably really awkward. Despite knowing each other for more than three years, and having developed crushes on each other over time, they only really met when school began. And they hadn't really _talked_ until yesterday. They were trying to get used to each other in person for now, that was fair.

"Well, I need his number. Please give it to me." "Why do you need it?" "We're making a group chat. Lust just sent me Horror's so we have everyone we want but him."

Had he heard that right? "A group chat? How many people?" Cross _needed_ to know. Dust provided him with answers. "I think we're fourteen. Yeah we're fourteen. We're putting all the skeletons in our year into it."

Oh this would be horrible. Cross approved. Nightmare sighed, clearly not liking this idea. "So basically, you're creating hell." "Yeah pretty much."

Two minutes later or so, their phones buzzed. Dream and Nightmare pulled them out with dread, while Ink, Blue and Cross did it with excitement.

**We have magical dicks**

**Dust:**  
hello hello fellow skeletons  
We have just created hell

 *****:**  
Oh we can see that

 **Dream:**  
Was that name really necessary though?

 **Killer:**  
Oh yes absolutely

 **You:**  
I like it

 **Nugget:**  
Shut up Cross

 **You:**  
:c

 **Killer:**  
...  
Anyways  
I feel like some of us don't know each other, or just don't have each other's number

 *****:**  
Yeah how tf did u even get mine

 **Ink:**  
I gave it to him lol

 **Blue:**  
The betrayal lol

 **Killer:**  
ANYWAYS  
so I think everyone should have to introduce themselves so the other's can like, save their numbers  
I'm Killer lol

 **Dust:**  
I'm Dust

 **Blue:**  
I'm the magnificent Blue!!

 *****:**  
Never change  
oh I'm Lust btw

 *****:**  
Horror

 **Lust:**  
hey wait I thought you lost your phone

 **Horror:**  
just found it

 *****:**  
Sci.  
The next guy is Fell.

 *****:**  
Hhhhhhhnnnng

 **Sci:**  
He's taking a shit right now.

 **Fell:**  
Babe wtf

 **Dream:**  
Oh well, I'm Dream :)

 **Nugget:**  
I'm not doing this bullshit

 **You:**  
That's Nightmare In case you couldn't tell  
I'm Cross btw  
I _will_ send memes at the ass crack of dawn into this, no I'm not sorry in advance lol

 *****:**  
Please don't do that  
I'm Geno

 *****:**  
Reaper here, my biggest flex is that I was the only one aside from Error, who's literally his cousin, that had Geno's number before this

 **Geno:**  
Stfu that's because Error gave it to you

 **Error:**  
It was him from my phone and u asked him 4 it!

 **Reaper:**  
Yeah Geno, you asked me

 **Geno:**  
Fuck you!

 **Nugget:**  
I hate this already

 **Fell:**  
You're not alone, trust me buddy

 **Nugget:**  
I'm nobody's buddy, buddy

 **You:**  
Not even mine? :c

 **Nugget:**  
...do you wanna be my buddy?

 **You:**  
Nah, we're way more than buddies.  
But like, hypothetically

 **Nugget:**  
*sigh*  
Hypothetically, you'd be the exception  
I'd be your buddy

 **You:**  
:D

 **Error:**  
Bitch did u just type out "sigh"

 **Blue:**  
Im more bothered by the fact that they're having this convo while right next to each other tbh

 **Killer:**  
You call that next to each other?  
Cross is literally in his lap  
His _ass_ is on his _lap_

 **Dust:**  
(they’re still "just friends" folks)

 **Sci:**  
We know that you sit with your ass Killer, you didn't have to specify.

 **Dream:**  
Hjskskslskfnlsnsjqlsndvwin  
pls why was that so funny

 **Reaper:**  
Bottom

 **Fell:**  
Yo what?!

 **Reaper:**  
It's not my fault he keyboard smashed!

 **Dream:**  
I don't feel comfortable with you calling me a bottom. Sexual stuff is ew :c

 **Dust:**  
EY YO! NIGHTMARE!  
REAPER IS MAKING YOUR BRO UPSET

 **Nugget:**  
Reaper I'm giving you the chance to apologize rn

 **Reaper:**  
Or what?  
(Srsly though sorry Dream. I won't make sex jokes with you if you don't like that)

 **Nugget:**  
Or I'll tell Cross to break your spine  
Trust me he'll do it without hesitation if I tell him

 **You:**  
:)

 **Dream:**  
Thanks Reaper

 **Ink:**  
Cross is kinda terrifying ngl

 **Lust:**  
You're noticing this now???

 **Killer:**  
Bruh he literally almost killed me on our first day of school with a _giant_ knife and it was lowkey kinda hot but ignore that I said that

Cross decided to pointedly ignore the second part of that message, Nightmare didn't.

"Hey hey Killer. What do you mean by that?" "Oh shit I'm dead."

Cross sighed, and watched as Nightmare chased Killer around. It was actually kinda funny. Dream, Blue, Ink and Dust were laughing their asses off too.

"Naawww look at that! Your boyfriend is possessive!" " _Chara we went over this_."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Haha yes the second part of this chapter was pure crack.
> 
> I miss writing chatfics, they're literally so dumb and no one questions it.
> 
> Also yes Cross is one of the people who saves everyone with their actual name except for like, one person. In this case Nightmare.


	19. Jealous Geno with a sprinkle of self doubt

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> In which Geno thinks about the way he treats others, more specifically Reaper, because a pretty girl gets awfully close to his not-actually-boyfriend 
> 
> Also Fell may or may not be plotting murder

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> From now on there will be more timeskips because I can't make the book t h a t long lol
> 
> Also yes this is Reaper!Toriel aka Life specifically 
> 
> Ignore the fact that this came out one day after the last chapter I had a sudden need to write jealous Geno angst okay

School had been going on for almost a month now, and while they weren't exactly official, Reaper's constant flirting (which usually wasn't exactly one sided anymore), had Geno assuming that they were close enough to being together to _not_ flirt with others.

Well apparently he was wrong.

It had all started out normal, the skeletons of their year had been sitting together at lunch as they always did after the group chat hell had started (Nightmare, Cross, Horror and Fell had bullied some other large group into giving up their table or something, he didn't really care) but then Reaper's phone had started ringing.

As he had been currently engaged in a conversation with Geno, he would've usually declined the call. It looked liked he was going to do just that, but then he saw the name of the person calling and seemed to immediately change his mind. "This is important, sorry."

Geno had thought nothing of it, but when he heard the conversation going on he did grow a little suspicious. "Sup Tori?...what? No way!...hm...mhm...oh Tori dear I'm sorry."

Dear? Who was he calling dear? Who was this Tori and what was their relationship with Reaper?

Everyone else at the table seemed just as confused at least, Error leaned over and whispered to him. "A close friend or something. Sometimes he leaves the dorm to 'hang out with Tori'." For some reason, Geno was really not liking this.

Reaper having friends wasn't a problem, obviously. And calling friends affectionate nicknames wasn't necessarily weird. Lust called them sweetheart or sweetie all the time. But Reaper? Reaper didn't do that.

The best thing he'd say was dude. Heck, Geno knew for a fact that Reaper either saved people on his phone with their name, or something bitch. He was "sexy bitch" Error was "glitch bitch". Reaper was _not_ someone to just call you "dear" out of nowhere, so who was this person?

His question was answered as a tall goat monster suddenly walked up to their table.  
"Hey guys, this is my friend Toriel. She'll sit with us for today.", Reaper said, before smiling and patting the space next to him.

That wasn't his usual cocky grin, it was a soft genuine smile. Something about Reaper smiling at this girl like that instead of him made Geno's blood boil. Metaphorically.

To make matters worse, Toriel immediately hugged Reaper and whispered something to him, the other simply slung an arm around her as best as he could with their height difference and gently pat her back.

Geno was in absolute shock. For the rest of the whole lunch break, he went completely ignored by Reaper. _Everyone_ went completely ignored by Reaper!  
He instead, chatted with his dear Toriel the whole time, the two of them sitting _way_ too close and giggling amongst themselves.

At some point Toriel whispered something and subtly gestured towards him, Reaper nodded. Geno made sure to glare at her as coldly as possible in that moment, she flinched a little. Good. He _really_ didn't like this girl.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, in all their classes after this, Reaper secretly had his phone out. Geno couldn't see what he was writing, but he _could_ see that he was texting Toriel! The two of them sat next to each other in every class they shared (which were almost all of them) so he was basically just rubbing it into his face at this point.

Geno was _pissed_ though he wasn't exactly sure why.

Him and Reaper _weren't_ dating. The other head no obligation not to flirt with other people. In fact, Geno was always so cold towards Reaper and just ended up insulting him when the other tried to get closer to him. So why would he even _want_ to date him?

Geno liked Reaper, he really did. When he was mean to the other he usually didn't mean to hurt his feelings. That's why he only was like this with Reaper, Error or Nightmare and not Sci or Ink. Reaper knew this. At least Geno was pretty sure he knew because he always laughed it off. But what if he didn't? What if he actually hurt his feelings a lot?

He didn't like the thought of that. He had never even considered the possibility that his behavior might end up pushing people away.

Had he fucked this up? Had Reaper moved on? (A voice in the back of his head was telling him that Reaper was a raging homosexual, but he didn't listen to it. That information had somehow slipped his mind at the moment.)

Geno felt a lot of emotions, none of them were exactly nice. The one he could make out the most though, was anger. And this anger was mainly directed at himself and Toriel. That dumb goat.

Really, she didn't deserve his hatred. She seemed like a really nice girl. He had only seen her once prior to today and that was when she was helping an armless monster carry around their stuff, even though they were seemingly strangers.

And she was pretty too. Geno was too gay to ever be attracted to a girl, but he wasn't blind. Her eyes were warm and friendly, her fur looked fluffy but was still kept neatly, the way her light green dress seemed to fit her just _perfectly_. Yeah, she was really pretty.

Geno wanted to strangle her.

But that was just him being an asshole right? Because Geno was always unnecessarily mean to people. Why had he never realized this?

Then, after school, Reaper stopped him by putting a hand on his shoulder. As happy as he was to _finally_ get the other's attention, he was still mad, so he accidentally snapped at the other. "What do you want Reaper?"

The other seemed a bit taken aback by his cold tone. "I uhm...wanted to ask if you wanna come to our dorm for a bit. Play mariokart or something." Geno _wanted_ to. He really did. But at that moment, he just couldn't say yes and he hated himself for it. Instead, he moved his shoulder harshly, effectively removing Reaper's hand from it. " _No_. Why don't you just go hang out with your dearest Tori?"

He walked away, and left Reaper to stare after him with a shocked and hurt expression.

Shit. Shit. Shit. _Shit._  
 _Why_ would he say that? He had not only passed up an opportunity to hang out with Reaper, but also hurt the others feelings. He didn't mean to do that. But he was too much of a coward to apologize.

So, afraid of any sort of confrontation, Geno did what only a coward would do and hid in the school garden behind a large bush. God he was pathetic.

He didn't know how long he had been sitting there, sulking to himself. He was starting to get a little cold though.  
But then, to his surprise and horror, Toriel walked up to him. "Oh, I'm glad I finally found you."

She had been searching for him? Was she going to yell at him? Tell him to stay away from Reaper? Or simply rub it in his face that he favored her?

Toriel did none of those things. Instead, she sat down next to Geno and smiled at him warmly. "Reaper told me what happened, I apologize for the misunderstanding."

Geno didn't know what to say. "I understand that we may come of as...well, more than just friends. But I assure you that we are not, maybe Reaper should have communicated that to you better." He took a deep breath, he didn't want to snap at Toriel like he had with Reaper. "It's...uhm...I don't- I wouldn't care if you were.", he mumbled into his scarf.

The goat monster chuckled. "You wouldn't? Reaper told me you two are practically together. I'd be bothered if I was you." Oh so they _were_ on the same page about that. Good to know.

"I'm a lesbian, by the way."

Oh. Oh no. Now Geno kinda felt bad. "That's why Reaper and I are so close, we were the only gay kids in middle school. Actually, my girlfriend just left me for some older guy, a few days before our one year anniversary too. That's why I was upset."

Forget feeling bad Geno felt like the scum of earth. Not only had he gotten upset for no reason at all, he had literally been so angry at Toriel that he had wanted to throw something at her. But she was just sad because her girlfriend had left her and wanted to be comforted by a friend!

"I feel like such an asshole right now I'm so sorry." "It's fine, really. I'm not mad. Neither is Reaper. He's just sad because he thinks you don't like him anymore." "No seriously! I'm such a shitty person oh my god."

Toriel laid a paw on his shoulder in a comforting manner. "It's fine, really. I know what it's like to be jealous. And it's not like you did anything mean, you just glared at me like you wanted me to die." Her joking tone made Geno chuckle a little, but then he choked on his breath. "Wait hold up jealous?! I'm not- I wasn't-"

She looked at him and raised an eyebrow, clearly unimpressed. "Okay. Maybe I was."

They sat like that for a little longer, before Toriel stood up. "Well, I have to go now. I promised to help my friend with their homework. Go talk to Reaper will you?" She smiled at him on last time and left. "Sure, yeah." But Geno couldn't find it in himself to stand up. He was ashamed and didn't know how to talk to the other know.

If he was in Reaper place he wouldn’t want to have anything to do with himself, he was horrible.

After a few more minutes, Reaper floated around the corner. "Ah, here you are Geno. Tori said you'd probably sit here for a little longer." How had she known? This girl really was something. "So uuuuhm...I made you pretty upset huh? Sorry."

Geno took a deep breath, he couldn't insult Reaper, he had to stop doing that. "S'fine. I totally overacted. So I'm sorry too." The other frowned. "Hey, you're supposed to tell me that I better be sorry and that it's totally my fault now." "I mean, I usually would. But I feel like maybe I'm too mean to you? Too mean in general?"

Reaper studied his face closely, then he spoke, his usual teasing tone completely absent. "I mean, it's kind of your thing. Usually people can tell that you're not serious, usually it's funny." He paused, seemingly contemplating his next choice of words. "But well...sometimes it does kinda hurt, even if I know you're joking. I don't know about others but..."

Geno buried his face in his scarf. "I'm sorry." "It's fine." "How is it fine?!" "You don't know any better do you? It's just how you are, it's never your intention to do any harm and you're not above apologizing unless you get scared."

"Still...I feel like I should work on it..." Reaper smiled ah him, it was a gentle smile and it made Geno's soul flatter. "Then do that, but don't beat yourself up about it. You can still be mean from time to time Geno, no one will get mad at you. I'm pretty sure most of us find it charming, I definitely do. Just...try not to go overboard." "Okay. Okay I'll do that." And Geno smiled back at him, that's all he could really do right now.

The other offered him a hand, and he let himself be pulled to his feet. "So I can keep being an asshole as long as I know when to stop?" "You're a cute asshole, so yeah definitely."

Geno smirked. "Well then Reaper, I've been meaning to tell you that you're a fucking coward." "Oh? How come?" "Because we totally could be boyfriends if you just asked me out already. I'm waiting you know."

Reaper grinned and gently cupped his face with his hands. "Is that so? Will you be my boyfriend then?" "Fine, but only cause you asked nicely."

And then Reaper leaned down and pressed a kiss to his mouth ever so softly. For once Geno didn't have a snarky remark, he simply closed his eyes and melted into the kiss.

"Took me long enough huh Geno?" "Sure did."

———

Fell was sitting on his bed listening to music when Blue suddenly burst into their room. He usually would've ignored him, but he noticed that the other was...crying.

He stood up. "Blue what happened?" "Oh...hah, don't worry about that." Fell looked him up and down critically and suddenly noticed something. "You're not wearing you scarf.", he deadpanned, the other stayed silent.

"Where is it." That wasn't a question, not really, he already knew. This was bound to happen, Blue was just too damm nice. He just wanted to see if the other would tell him on his own. Blue didn’t. He continued to stay silent.

Fell grabbed his hoodie, put on his shoes, grabbed his phone and keys and gave his roommate, _not friend_ , a reassuring shoulder squeeze. "I'll be back, don't leave the dorm or I'll literally kill you. Call your boyfriend to comfort you or something." "Dust? But he's not my-" "Don't care. Bye now."

Fell slammed the door behind him. Damm Blue and his disgusting friendship and making Fell _care_ about him.

Someone was going to get their ass kicked.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> :)
> 
> A sprinkle of Geno angst, because yeah at some point he would probably realize that being mean may or may not hurt people's feelings.
> 
> Geno‘s a Tsundere yeah, but I don’t want him to be like, just plain mean. Then it wouldn’t make sense for people to like him, ya know?  
> He'll work on it.
> 
> Also hahahahah next chapter is so fun


	20. Some idiots are getting their asses kicked - Fell may or may not be terrified

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Fell gets some help to beat people up for his bestie.
> 
> That’s it. That’s literally it.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So uh.  
> Hm.
> 
> This chapter includes some violent scenes. But like, they're not t h a t violent I promise it's nothing in comparison to the Dust Angst chapter.
> 
> Just, putting the warning here because I know some people who would get triggered by reading this if they're having a bad day or something and better safe than sorry :)

Fell had to stay rational. As much as he wanted to just walk up to their dumb upperclassman and punch the shit out of him, he knew he couldn't do that.

He wouldn't be alone. Those guys were never alone. So Fell couldn't be alone either. Luckily, he knew just who to ask for help.

He banged on their door, hard. None other than Nightmare opened it, he glared at him and Fell had to force himself not to flinch. "What do you want? We're in the middle of something." "Oh? Were you finally making out?" "What? No we-" "Then it's unimportant. I need your help."

Fell knew very well that he was on thin ice right now. Annoying Nightmare was never a good idea, but he had to do this quickly. "You know this wannabe bully group of older kids that picks on people in our year? They took something, I need help getting it back."

The taller stared at him critically. "And you think I'll help you because?" "Because they made Blue cry. Don't you wanna punch everyone who makes Blue cry?" Nightmare was considering it, but he was clearly not convinced. Fell wasn't going to give up though. "Besides, if they go after Blue then surely they'll go after Dream too right?"

Nightmare stiffened, that was exactly the reaction he had hoped for. "I mean, sure. Cross said that Dream could kick his ass if he wanted to, but he's too nice to do that isn't he? He'll just let them hurt him." That seemed to do the trick, because Nightmare groaned before turning back and grabbing his shoes. "Cross! We're beating someone up!" "Sir, yes sir!"

So now, Fell was leading the two to the sketchy parking lot their school had for some reason. He really didn't understand what this was for, no teachers ever came here so they were basically just asking for students to get in trouble. But hey, maybe they just wanted some drama to happen. He couldn't blame them.

Nightmare's tentacles were wildly twitching in all directions, Fell guessed that that meant he  
was angry. "Careful there Nighty. If you don't control your temper someone's gonna end up dead." "Right back at you. Don't stab anyone, not to death at least. And don't let the brat take over."  
Fell didn't know what Nightmare meant with "brat" and he somehow didn't want to find out.

Ah, there they were. A tall human with brown hair and muscular built was sitting on one of two wooden boxes in the far back of the parking lot. A small angry looking lizard monster, his scales a way too bright green, was sitting on the box next to him. Both of them were smoking and seemed to be in deep conversation. The human's name was Daniel, Fell had never bothered learning that of the monster.

"Hey Asshole!" Both of them turned to him, their surprised expressions quickly morphed into smug grins. "Oh hey Fell! I see you brought friends. What's the special occasion?" The human's voice was so incredibly annoying. _Don't punch him. Don't punch him. Don't punch him._ Fell thought that over and over again, it was getting really hard to listen to himself.

"You know _exactly_ what I want. Give. It. Back." "...hmmm I don't think I will, why should I?" Out of the corner of his eye, Fell noticed Cross glancing to the side. It seemed like he was very concentrated on what appeared to be thin air. He decided to ignore that for now. "I told you to stay away from him or I'd kick your ass, didn't I?" "Pfffft, we already leave the nerdy one alone. Don't expect us to be any nicer."

Fell was going to talk some more, but Nightmare had clearly decided that this conversation was getting boring. He rolled his eye, confidently walked forward, and grabbed Daniel by the neck with one of his tentacles. "Okay enough chitchat, listen here you little piece of shit. Don't ever mess with Blue again. Or any of his friends. _Especially_ not Dream. Because I swear to god if you do I _will_ kill you."

For the first time ever, Fell thought that the human looked a bit scared. He smirked in satisfaction. "Let me go you slimy freak!" "Now now that's not a very nice thing to say is it?" Nightmare's grin became downright sadistic as the tentacle seemed to squeeze down just a little more and a part of Fell was telling him to never sit next to the other at lunch again.

In an obvious attempt to help his friend, the lizard guy (Fell should seriously try and find out his name) tackled Nightmare. Or well, he _tried_ to. Because somehow, faster than Fell could blink, Cross had gotten in between, kneed him in the stomach and then punched his jaw with so much force he fell backwards.

Okay. Okay. Fell was so terrified of his buddies sometimes. (Buddies, not friends. There was a difference!) "Cross what the actual fuck was that?" "I'm sorry. It was on reflex he tried to hurt Nightmare!" "How is something like _this_ a reflex?!" "Both of you shut up!" Both Fell and Cross immediately turned to look at Nightmare after he snapped at them.

Nightmare let go of Daniel, who desperately gasped for air. "So, do you wanna give back whatever you stole and swear to never pull this shit again or do we have to beat up your little friends first?" Daniel, who was apparently suicidal, spit in Nightmare's face. "Hah! As if I'd _ever_ do what you told me t-" One of Nightmare's tentacles had grabbed him by the waist and thrown him against a wall.

The goopy skeleton shrugged, seemingly unbothered. "Well then, guess we're doing it the hard way." He turned to look at Fell. "Cross says there's some guys lurking in the shadows. Eight in total if we count these two idiots. I trust you to take on two, we'll take care of the rest. _Don't_ fuck it up."

"Wait wha-" Fell was rudely interrupted by a bull monster charging at him with full speed. He used blue magic to throw them against a nearby trash can as hard as he could. Suddenly, he felt a presence behind him. He summoned a bone attack on instinct, it came out of the ground and hit his attacker's stomach.

When he turned around Fell saw a monster that could only be described as ugly. It was freakishly tall, pure black with a distorted face and kind of like a...noodle? They reminded him of those gas station wiggly thingies. Then again, this was really not the time to make fun of their appearance.

They were clutching their stomach in pain, and hissed at him. Next thing he knew was that one of their freakishly long arms(?) had grabbed his skull and was smashing it to the ground with force. It probably should've hurt a lot, but Fell found himself not being all that bothered. Good thing that he was used to being hit there huh?

He wasn't good at teleporting, not yet, but he still managed to teleport out of the monster's grasp and behind them. This caught them of guard, great. Fell used his chance to kick their legs as hard as he could. It somehow did the trick but also really didn't? They _did_ loose their balance, but while falling forwards they twisted their entire neck to turn towards him and _oh_ this monster was creeping him out.

He used blue magic to force them to the ground and summoned a bone attack from the ground at the same time. They slammed face first into the bone and were thankfully knocked unconscious by that hit.

Fell had no time to relax because the bull monster was charging at him again. He summoned a wall of three large Blue bones directly in front of him in the last second, and the monster cried out in pain as they crashed into it. One good punch to the jaw, the crunch was oddly satisfying and hard Fell smirking to himself, and this monster too was on the ground. This had been a lot easier than Fell had imagined it to be.

Just as he though that, he noticed a human girl charging at him with a baseball bat. Oh _crap_. Thankfully, a giant knife flew past him and pinned her to the nearest wall by her scarf. Wait. _What_. He though that only happened in movies? Wasn't that incredibly dangerous? "That was one of mine. She escaped my field of vision for a second, sorry Fell."

"CROSS WHAT IF YOU MISSED?!" That wasn't a serious question. Fell knew what would've happened. Her entire head would've been split open. That was probably why the poor girl didn't dare move an inch anymore.

He turned to look at Cross, who was staring back at him coldly. "I wouldn't have. I don't miss.", he deadpanned. At this point Fell couldn't decide which one of the murder-not-boyfriends terrified him more but he knew damm well that he would never insult either of them again.

It was only then that he realized that this girl had pretty much been "the last one standing". Three people, two humans and a monster, were laying in random positions on the floor around Nightmare and Cross. They didn't look anywhere near dead but they sure as hell looked beat up.

Another monster, the green lizard one actually, was also on the ground but he was still struggling. Cross had apparently decided that the best way to solve this problem was to _fucking stand on his back_ and probably break a few of his rips while he was at it. The lizard hissed another insult and Cross seemed to have no patience left as he summoned another knife and rammed it into the ground right next to his face. He stayed quiet.

And lastly, there was Daniel, the leader. He was hanging in the air upside down by one of Nightmare's tentacles. The skeleton was smirking in satisfaction.

Fell walked up to his two allies. "We're back at square one. Swear to _never_ go anywhere near Blue or my brother or _any_ of their friends again.", Nightmare hissed. It was only now that Fell noticed that Nightmare explicitly didn't call them his own friends. ~~They really did have a thing or two in common, huh?~~

"Or what?" Fell had to admit, Daniel had guts. Or maybe he was just stupid. Either way, Nightmare was probably about to get even more aggressive when Cross calmly stepped forward. He looked at Nightmare as if to ask for permission, the other nodded.

The monochrome skeleton grabbed Daniel by his hair and pulled him forward harshly. They were looking directly into each other's eyes now, and Cross had a sinister smile on his face.

"Well, if you really want to know I'll tell you. I'd inject a high dose of insulin onto your tongue while you're sleeping. You'd die of high blood pressure and the wound would never be found. Since you're a human your body is a bit harder to expose of, but it's nothing I can't handle. I'd either take your corpse to a cemetery where the police dogs would have a harder time distinguishing between your body and the others after I buried it, or to a wood at least two hours away from here. If I went with the woods I'd dig a twelve foot hole and dump your body inside, close the hole halfway, stick a dead animal on top and then burry it all the way in hopes of making the cops think that the dogs only sniffed said dead animal. _Should_ they find your body they wouldn't be able to identify the cause of death because again, they won't find any wounds and insulin doesn't appear on their standard tests anyways. Should they test specifically for insulin, they'll assume you had undiagnosed diabetes."

Everyone (that was still conscious) stared at Cross in shock, Daniel looked like he was about to piss his pants. Fell gulped. Yeah, he should _really_ watch his mouth around these two. Was Cross speaking from experience?

Nightmare on the other hand looked at Cross fondly, the slightest hint of blush on his face. "You know I love you right?" "Yeah Nighty, love ya too."

Daniel looked utterly terrified now. Damm, that had really been the final straw, Cross had broken him. "Okay okay we'll leave them alone I swear! Just- let me down like right now." Nightmare did, he dropped him and it looked rather painful. "There, was that so hard?"

The human scrambled to get away, but Fell stopped him with a simple glare and held out his hand. "Right. Here, take it back. I don't get why you made such a big deal out of this shitty thing..." He reached into the inside pockets of his jacket, and pulled out Blue's scarf, bandanna, bow, Fell didn't know and definitely didn't care thing.

Nightmare and Cross stared at him with curiosity. "Just- just don't comment on it okay?!" Fell began stomping back to their dorms in embarrassment, the other two followed him wordlessly but with cheeky grins on their faces. They left the group of probably mildly traumatized upperclassman to deal with their injuries on their own.

"Thanks for helping me out you two." "Don't worry about it." "Our pleasure. Like, literally our pleasure I enjoyed that." "Nighty please." "Come on don't lie. You thought the lizard guy struggling under you was funny." "I- you know what fuck you. I'm like this because of your influence." "I'm a great influence and you know it. Also I'm not the one planning a detailed murder and how to get away with it." "My dad thought me this shit I'm only putting the things I know to good use!" "Murder is a good use yes." "That's not what I- EuGH."

Fell snickered at their friendly banter. But he still had one question on his mind. "Hey Cross, how'd you know there were other guys hiding? I mean, I figured. But like, how'd you know how many?" Cross simply winked at him. "Don't think about it too hard. Let's just say I have dead people helping me or something like that." That didn't make any sense but Fell was afraid to inquire any further.

Besides, he had more important things to do right now. He unlocked his dorm and walked in to see Blue still crying, with Dust awkwardly trying to comfort him. They were sitting on the floor with some blankets around them.

Dust obviously didn't know what the fuck he was doing and looked at Fell in a way that screamed "help" but he seemed to actually be somewhat helpful? Blue was still crying yes, but he looked a lot better now.

"Hey idiot, I got you something." Fell held out Blue's scarf for him to take and braced himself for what was about to come. Blue gasped and tackled him in a hug. "Thank you thank you thank you thank you!" "Shut up. Don't get any ideas, it's not like we're friends or anything. You just mentioned that it's important because your brother gave it to you or something once, so I figured you'd want it back."

"I mentioned that once, in a rant. You actually listen to me Fell?" Shit. "No? I mean, kinda. Ah fuck yes I do." "You're right, we're not friends Fell. _You're my best friend!_ " This was definitely not what he had intended to happen, but Fell couldn't bring himself to fight back right now.

He sighed, and decided to go along with Blue just this once. "Fine, you're my best friend too. But don't let it get to your head!" He could hear Nightmare and Cross, who were standing in the doorway snickering. Oh how he hated this.

Dust who had now gotten up, coughed awkwardly. "Well then uuuuhm... I'll just...go back? See ya?" Blue turned to Dust, and gave him a hug too. "Yeah, see you tomorrow. Thanks for coming here." "No problem Blue." He smiled softly at the other skeleton, before turning to leave.

Well then, Fell might as well commit to his new role as best friend. Before Dust could leave he grabbed the other's shoulder and whispered something in his nonexistent ear. "You hurt him and I'll kill you." Dust nodded frantically, clearly caught of guard a bit, before quickly disappearing.

"Well then, bye Fell! Bye Blue!" Cross exclaimed before following Nightmare, who was already half way around the corner, into the opposite direction of Dust. Fell waved, before closing the door.

This had been a weird experience.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hahaha this is somehow the longest chapter yet :)
> 
> Nightmare and Cross definitely don't have the mindsets of normal highschoolers when it comes to breaking people's bones lol.
> 
> And yes, if you caught that, it was absolutely hinting at future Fell angst. Only the best for my dearest EdgyMcMyChemicalRomance


	21. Dust continues to be self destructive - Also K r e m e

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Dust continues to be not very healthy, but his friends take care of him and that makes everything a little more bearable.
> 
> Also Killer moves from one gay crisis to another.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Small warning once more!  
> For the first half of this chapter Dyrus is here again and doing his thing. Though it's not half as bad as t h a t chapter. This is actually more of a comfort thing.
> 
> Some self loathing and like, implied/referenced(?) eating disorders. But nothing explicit so yeah
> 
> Just skip to after the - line thingy if you don't wanna see it

"I'm telling you Cross is actually secretly a murderer! Yesterday he came up with this whole insulin murder plot on the spot and it was creepy as fuck!" "Secretly? Nah he has admitted to committing second degree murder in front of us. He's probably proud of it too." "In my defense he was horrible and deserved to die." "I can't tell if you're joking or if you actually murdered someone? This is so very concerning."

Dust rested his head on the table while listening to the others' conversation at breakfast. He felt tired today.

"Oh yeah he definitely deserved it. I helped." "Haha yeah they did do that. I set his dust on fire afterwards." "You did _what_?!" "No there's no way- you're just messing with us right? _Right_?"

Dust could barely identify their voices, though he didn't really care, he was kinda dizzy.

"Hey Dust are you okay?" It took him a few seconds to realize that yes, this person was in fact talking to him. He turned his head to the voice next to him and _god_ had his head always been this heavy? Blue looked at him with concern. "Did you sleep today? At all? You look horrible."

He didn't. Dyrus had kept him awake all night long, whispering _something_ , Dust didn't even know what exactly. He hadn't been able to get an ounce of sleep.

This seemed to catch the attention of everyone else at the table, as they all turned to him. "Great job brother, now they're all worried about you." He wanted Dyrus to shut the fuck up. As soon as realized that that thought had just crossed his mind, he felt guilty. How could he think like that about his precious little brother?

Since that one time Cross had given him his chocolate milk, Dust had been using sugary drinks from the vending machines in order to keep his magic at least near the levels it was supposed to be at. It didn't exactly make him stop craving proper food, but at least it did _something_.

Well, not anymore. Dyrus had suddenly decided that he didn't like those drinks either, and now Dust went back to water and the occasional pathetic excuse of a meal. The drinks hadn't done much, but they had still done more than he expected. The loss of that extra magic plus the fact that he had been awake for a little more than 24 hours made him pretty exhausted to say the least.

"M'fine...don't worry about me." "Yeah okay you're definitely _not_ fine. What the fuck did you do to exhaust yourself like this?" Geno's stern tone was laced with a bit of concern, it made Dust snort. "You're not my mooooom..."

He realized that he lacked his usual energy, but he couldn't bring himself to pretend right now. The others exchanged some meaningful glances, before Nightmare suddenly stood up. Dust didn't get to question it because he felt something cold and slimy wrap around his waist.

Nightmare lifted him up effortlessly with one of his tentacles and started to walk away. Dust simply went slack and didn't bother fighting back. "Cross." "Yeah I'm on it." He didn't know what that interaction was supposed to be, but Cross had stood up and ran somewhere so at least _he_ had understood.

"Where are we going lord tentacles?" He asked when they had exited the cafeteria. Nightmare narrowed his eye at him. "Don't call me that. And we're going to your dorm." "...why?" In a normal situation, Dust could've maybe _probably_ figured out why, but he was kinda sorta not in the mood for thinking right now. "You're going to bed, and you're gonna sleep." Oh.

"What about school?" "It's Friday it's gonna be fine. Your health is also more important don't you think?" No, he didn't think so actually. In his opinion, his health held no importance at all, but if he said that Nightmare would probably get really upset. Despite the fact he liked to pretend that he didn't care about any of them, Nightmare probably cared the most.

"Your friends are so great brother, they care for you." Dust already knew what his brother would say next, and it stung. "You don't deserve them."

Yeah, that was right. He didn't deserve them.

Personally, Dust believed that everyone deserved friends, but if Dyrus told him that he didn't, then he didn't. Dyrus was always right. _Always_.

Nightmare got the keys out of Dust's bag (Dust hadn't even known that he took it?) and entered his and Killer's dorm. "Which one's yours?" "Top." He placed him on his bed with a gentleness that Dust honestly hadn't expected Nightmare to have.

The door opened once more, and Cross stepped into the room. He looked slightly out of breath and held a small bottle of...something. "Dust do me a favor and take a sip of this okay."

And because Dust trusted the (definitely sketchy and slightly murdery) duo more than he trusted himself at this point, he took the bottle and did as told without hesitation. He noticed Dyrus frowning next to him, but the other didn't say anything.

He immediately felt...less miserable. "What did you just give me?" "Drugs." He wanted to laugh, but Cross didn't sound like he was joking.

"You...you just gave me..." "By definition, a drug is any kind of substance aside from food or water which, when taken into the body, alters the body's function either physically and/or psychologically. Caffeine and alcohol are also drugs. What you just drank was basically liquified magic. So...a drug." Cross explained while Nightmare snickered. "You gotta be really out of it right now. Who drinks a mysterious liquid without questioning anything?"

Dust didn't really follow, he was too tired to process words properly, but he got the point. What he had just injected wasn't dangerous and simply magic, so he wasn't exactly worried.

"What was that for?" "Oh my dad used to give me that after I over exhausted myself with...uhm...activities." It was clear that Cross didn't want to talk about it, so Dust let it be at that.

Nightmare used one of his tentacles to pull the covers of Dust, who had honestly forgotten to do it himself. "...Dust you do realize that it was only a matter of time until you collapsed right?" He didn't dare look his friends in the eyes, instead he stared at the ceiling. "Yeah."

"Making the friends that you don't deserve anyways take care of you...selfish isn't it?" Dyrus whispered, and Dust felt like crying. Sometimes he wondered if he could do anything right. Ever.

"Go to sleep Dust. But you're not getting out of this just like that, we'll have a talk." Nightmare said, and placed a hand on his skull. Wait when had the other even climbed up here?

Dust didn't have time to think about that, because his eye sockets suddenly became heavy. He realized that Nightmare was probably using sleeping magic on him. Nightmare was either ridiculously good at that, or his prior exhaustion made it easier to put him to sleep, but Dust was out within seconds.

He could've sworn he heard footsteps and voices, then again he could've imagined it. "What are we gonna do with him?" "Get him a therapist." "Yeah because that totally works." "Just because _ours_ were shitty doesn't mean all of them are gonna be. But we should probably talk to..."

Dust didn't hear the rest of the conversation, as he drifted into a dreamless sleep.

When he woke up around noon, his whole body felt less sore and for the first time in quite a while, his brother was nowhere to be seen.

He climbed down the latter of his bed carefully and was greeted by an unexpected sight. There, on their table, were a bunch of the sugary and sometimes fuzzy drinks he had become so obsessed with lately. Various sticky notes, mostly from Blue and Killer, with messages like "because you like them so much!", "you better fucking take care of yourself you bastard" and "I hope you feel better!" were stuck to them.

Dust smiled, and when he opened a random one and began drinking it, he didn't feel guilty at all. Dyrus didn't seem to mind.

———

Killer was, as far as he was concerned, completely over his crush on Cross. Sure, he still thought the other was cute and he seriously admired both his determination and knowledge, but there weren't any romantic feelings involved.

So now he didn't have to be afraid of Nightmare brutally murdering him anymore!

"Why are we baking this cake again? Not that I don't enjoy baking with you, but it was kinda weird for you to suddenly bang on my door at eight on a Saturday morning and drag me all the way here without explanation." "We're celebrating me getting over Cross."

Dream chuckled softly and adjusted the apron he had just put on. "Oh how nice, that means your life isn't endangered by my brother anymore. So what kind of cake are we baking?" "You decide, we have ingredients for a lot of stuff here."

Dream didn't even look at the ingredients their school had, he seemed to already have something in mind. "Can we try angel cake? I ate it once and it's super tasty!" Killer couldn't help but smile at the other's enthusiasm. "Totally, we don't need a lot of stuff for that either. It's supposed to cool down for like, 3 hours though. S'that okay with you?" "Yep, that's fine!"

Killer clapped into his hands. "Okay then assistant. Get me some caster sugar, salt, twelve eggs and cake flour. Oh and vanilla extract. I think the Cream of tartar shit is somewhere else. I'll get it." "The cream of _what_?" "...Dream we've used it before." "Are you sure it's always had that name?" He chuckled, this would be fun.

Killer instructed Dream to put some of the sugar, flour and salt into the blender. "Blend eight times." "That's a specific number." "I know what I'm doing okay."

Dream rolled his eyes, but still did exactly as told. "Okay so now we gotta separate the egg white from the yolk. Can you do that?" "Eeeeeeh..." "Got it. I'll help you."

Killer grabbed two small glass bowls and an egg. "We don't have any fancy tools here, but we can just do it the traditional way. That's more fun anyways." He cracked the egg on the side of one of the bowls and began transferring the yolk from one half of the shell to another. All of the egg white quickly landing in said bowl. When he was done, the yolk was thrown into the second one. He grabbed another egg and gave it to Dream. "Your turn."

The other did the same, though he was a bit more clumsy with it. "Kilerrrr help meeeee~" "You're doing fine though!" "Killerrrrr!" "Okay okay!" Killer laughed, before scooting closer to Dream and softly taking his hands to guide them. "There, not that hard right?" "Nope, now we just gotta do it ten more times."

"You really want me to- you know what, sure." And so, for the next few minutes, they continued like that in comfortable silence. Soft smiles on both of their faces. Killer was pressed against Dream's back and rested his chin on the other's shoulder in order to see. He noticed the faint smell of apples and cinnamon.

When they were done, Killer was almost hesitant to step back. It had been...weirdly nice.

Dream took the bowl with the leftover yolk with curiosity. "What do we do with the egg yolk?" "We usually turn the leftovers into cookies or lemon curd... _wait_ we should totally use it for pudding!" "Can we make chocolate pudding?" "Yeah definitely, let's finish this first though."

They quickly finished the rest of the recipe. Killer, who was now kind of craving the other's touch a little, made sure to always stand close to Dream and even took his hands to guide him like before from time to time. Had Dream looked slightly uncomfortable or asked him to stop even once, then Killer would've backed of immediately, but he didn't seem to mind.

Dream began cleaning up the place a bit as Killer pushed the cake into the oven. "Okay want me to freeze the egg yolk so we can make the pudding tomorrow or do you wanna do it now?" "You can _freeze_ egg yolk?"

Dream looked at him in amazement and Killer really couldn't help but laugh. "Yes, yes you can Dream." "Oh then we should wait until tomorrow! That gives me another excuse to spend an excessive amount of time with you." Pointedly ignoring the way he could clearly feel his face heating up at that statement, Killer turned to grab the egg yolks. "Can you get me an ice cube tray please?" "Sure thing!"

He put the little yellow blobs into the ice cube tray and added a bit of sugar into each of them. It would prevent them from loosing the right texture. He then put the tray into a zip-top bag and placed it into the fridge. Killer made a mental note to find that one chocolate pudding recipe he really liked, as he didn't know it by heart.

When he turned back towards Dream, he saw that the other had sat down on the floor and was now leaning against a kitchen counter. "How long is the cake gonna be in the oven?" "Usually takes between 40 and 45 minutes."

He decided to sit down next to his friend, who immediately started to lean against him. "I was wondering...I know you can bake, obviously, but are there any other food related things you're good at?", Dream asked, the curiosity clear in his voice.

"I mean, honestly I suck at cooking. Avery tries to teach me how to make sweets and all that sometimes but I can't do anything there unsupervised. The only things that aren't bread cake or cookies that I know how to make are puddings, I always have to get my recipes for those though." "Your recipes?" "Oh yeah I have like this big notebook where I write down recipes, no big deal." Killer would probably have to show it to Dream pretty soon, if that look on his face was anything to go by at least.

A minute or two passed, before Dream rested his head on Killer's shoulder. His breathed hitched and he began blushing again. "Dream what are you doing?" "Reclaiming my rightful sleep. I couldn't sleep in, even though it's the weekend because _you_ decided to wake me at eight. Not that I minded but you get the point." "So you're taking a nap because I woke you too early?" "Yeah."

Apparently Dream was one of the people that could fall asleep anywhere, because he was softly snoring after only two minutes. Wow.

Killer dared to snake an arm around the other's waist to keep him steady. This was...nice.

Dream's sleeping face was cute. Very cute. He smelled like cinnamon and apples, and Killer felt like there was some kind of warmth radiating from him. For a short moment, he found himself wishing that this moment could last forever.

Wait.

No. No way.

Killer took a good look at Dream's face again. He immediately found himself smiling, and he felt like he was blushing more and more.

_Shit._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poor Killer can't catch a break. He finally feels like he doesn't have to fear his buddy Nightmare anymore and then oops- it may or may not be worse than before
> 
> Also Dust is gonna get better eventually I promise.
> 
> ALSO DUST DIDNT GET DRUGGED DRUGGED- that was like, the same amount of drug as coffee. Cross just thinks he‘s funny

**Author's Note:**

> Comments are greatly appreciated so I can tell flower wether their fic sucks or not, because as semi-confident as I usually am in my fics I genuinely cannot tell with this


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